LIBRARY 

UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 

RIVERSIDE 


IRinLE  PAPER  -  PLEAS6 


c 


VICTORY  OF  ARMINIUS 

Frontispiece -Baf</es,  Vtjlume  One,  Chapter  SU- 


THE  GREAT   BATTLES 
OF  ALL  NATIONS 


FROM    MARATHON    TO    THE    SURRENDER    OF 
CRONJE   IN   SOUTH   AFRICA 


490 


B.   C.    TO    THE    PRESENT    DAY 


EDITED  FROM  THE  BEST  AND  LATEST  AUTHORITIES  BY 

ARCHIBALD   WILBERFORCE 

AUTHOR  OF    "THE  CAPITALS  OF  THE  GLOBE,"  Etc. 


VOLUME    ONE 


PROFUSELY   ILLUSTRATED 


NEW  YORK 

PETER  FENELON  COLLIER  h  SON 


A\  C  M  1 


r 


0:^b 


c- 


Copyright  1899 

BY 

Pbter  Fknelon  Collier 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER    I. 
Thb  Battle  of  Marathon-^90  B.  C ,, 7 

CHAPTER    II. 
The   Battle  of  Salamis— 480  B.  C 36 

CHAPTER    III. 
The  Siege  of  Syracuse— 413  B.C 67 

CHAPTER    IV. 
The  Victory  of  Arbela— 381  B.C 86 

CHAPTER    V. 
The  Defeat  of  Hannibal— 207  B.C 107 

CHAPTER    VI. 
The  Victory  of  Arminius  Over  the  Roman  Legions— A.  D.  9 134 

CHAPTER    VII. 
The  Sack  of  Rome— A.  D.  408-412 146 

CHAPTER    VIII. 
Attila,  Surnamed  the  Scourge  of  God— A.D.  451 173 

CHAPTER    IX. 
The  Defeat  of  Islam— A.  D.  732 188 

CHAPTER    X. 
The  Crusades— a.  D.  1095-1272 198 

CHAPTER    XI. 
The  Battle  of  Hastings- a.  D.  iog6 326 

CHAPTER    XII. 
Cressy,  Poitiers,  and  Agincourt— a.  D.  134&-1415 357 

CHAPTER    XIII. 
The  Battle  of  Orleans— A.  D.  1429 886 

CHAPTER    XrV. 
TB£  Fai^  of  Granada— a.  D.  1491 303 


LIST    OF   ILLUSTRATIONS 

CHAPTER    XV. 
The  Spanish  Armada  and  its  Defeat— A.  D.  1588 360 

CHAPTER    XVI. 
The  Battle  of  Blenheim— A.  D.  1704 386 

CHAPTER    XVII. 
Ramillies,  Oudenarde,  and  Malplaquet— a.  D.   1708 403 

CHAPTER    XVIII. 
The  Battle  of  Pultowa— A.  D.  1709  426 

CHAPTER    XIX. 
The  Battle  of  Quebec— A.  D.  1759 437 

CHAPTER    XX. 
The  Battle  of  the  Nile— A.  D.  1798 448 

CHAPTER    XXI. 
The  Battle  of  Marengo— A.  D.  1800 459 


LIST   OF    ILLUSTRATIONS 


Victory  of  Arminius— JProntispiece 

The  Plain  of  Marathon 

Battle  of  Thermopylje  

The  City  of  Syracuse 

The  Defeat  of  Hannibal  at  the  Battle  of  Zama 

Alaric's  Triumphant  Entry  Into  Rome 

Attila  After  His  Defeat  at  Soissons  

The  Battle  of  Hastings 

The  Battle  of  Cressy 

King  John  and  the  Dauphin  at  the  Battle  of  Poitiers. 

The  Battle  of  Agincourt 

Jeanne  D'Arc  at  the  Battle  of  Orleans 

surrenderlnq  the  keys  of  granada 

Defeat  of  the  Spanish  Armada 

The  Battle  of  Blenheim 

The  Battle  of  Oudenarde 

General  Wolfe 

The  Battle  of  the  Nile 

Nelson 

Wellington 

Desaix 


GREAT    BATTLES    OF   ALL   NATIONS 


THE  GREAT  BATTLES  OF  ALL  NATIONS 


CHAPTER    I 
THE    BATTLE   OF   MARATHON 

THE  GREAT   DEFEAT  OF  THE    PERSIAN    HORDES    OF    DARIUS   BY 
THE  GREEKS  UNDER  MILTIADES 

490  B.C. 

"27i«  mouiitahis  look  on  Marathon 

And  Marathon  looks  on  the  sea."— Byron 

THE  battle  of  Marathon  is  one  of  the  most  resonant  in  liistory-c 
With  it  history  properly  begins.  Before  then  there  was  his- 
tory indeed,  and  much  history ;  there  were  battles,  too,  and 
many  of  them.  Yet,  hke  the  history,  they  were  fitful  flashes,  short 
or  long,  that  subsided  into  darkness.  With  Marathon  historic  con- 
sciousness arose.  For  while  before  there  had  been  history  there 
had  been  no  historian.  With  Marathon  came  Herodotus,  and  from 
him  the  first  truly  historical  book,  in  which,  together  with  the  rest 
of  the  Persian  war,  he  tells  of  this  great  deed. 

Marathon  is  memorable  for  another  reason.  It  stands  for  a 
thousand  battles.  Subsequent  struggles  for  freedom  are  but  echoes 
and  repetitions  of  it.  For  the  first  time  it  told  a  race  what  a  race 
could  do.  It  was  therefore  not  a  battle  merely.  It  was  a  promise. 
It  was  the  gestation  of  the  future. 

Two  thousand  three  hundred  and  eighty-eight  years  ago  a  coun- 
cil of  Athenian  officers  stood  on  a  hill  that  overlooked  the  plain  of 
Marathon,  on  the  eastern  coast  of  Attica.  The  immediate  object 
of  their  meeting,  says  Sir  E.  S.  Creasy,  was  to  consider  whether 
they  should  give  battle  to  an  enemy  that  lay  encamped  on  the 
shore  beneath  them;    but  on  the  result  of  their  dehberations  de- 

(7) 


8  GREAT    BATTLES    OF  ALL   NATIONS 

pended  not  merely  the  fate  of  two  armies,  but  the  whole  future 
progress  of  human  civilization. 

There  were  eleven  members  of  that  council  of  war.  Ten  were 
the  generals  who  were  then  annually  elected  at  Athens,  one  for 
each  of  the  local  tribes  into  which  the  Athenians  were  divided. 
Each  general  led  the  men  of  his  own  tribe,  and  each  was  invested 
with  equal  mihtary  authority.  But  one  of  the  archons  was  also 
associated  with  them  in  the  general  command  of  the  army.  This 
magistrate  was  termed  the  polemarch  or  War-ruler;  he  had  the 
privilege  of  leading  the  right  wing  of  the  army  in  battle,  and  his 
vote  in  a  council  of  war  was  equal  to  that  of  any  of  the  generals. 
A  noble  Athenian  named  CaUimachus  was  the  War-ruler  of  this 
year ;  and  as  such,  stood  hstening  to  the  earnest  discussion  of  the 
ten  generals.  They  had,  indeed,  deep  matter  for  anxiety,  though 
little  aware  how  momentous  to  mankind  were  the  votes  they  were 
about  to  give,  or  how  the  generations  to  come  would  read  with 
interest  the  record  of  their  discussions.  They  saw  before  them 
the  invading  forces  of  a  mighty  empire,  which  had  in  the  last  fifty 
years  shattered  and  enslaved  nearly  all  the  kingdoms  and  princi- 
palities of  the  then  known  world.  They  knew  that  all  the  resources 
of  their  own  country  were  comprised  in  the  httle  army  intrusted  to 
their  guidance.  They  saw  before  them  a  chosen  host  of  the  Great 
King,  sent  to  wreak  his  special  wrath  on  that  country,  and  on  the 
other  insolent  little  Greek  community,  which  had  dared  to  aid  his 
rebels  and  burn  the  capital  of  one  of  his  provinces.  That  victori- 
ous host  had  already  fulfilled  half  its  mission  of  vengeance.  Ere- 
tria,  the  confederate  of  Athens  in  the  bold  march  against  Sardis 
nine  years  before,  had  fallen  in  the  last  few  days;  and  the  Athe- 
nian generals  could  discern  from  the  heights  the  island  of  JEgilia, 
in  which  the  Persians  had  deposited  their  Eretrian  prisoners,  whom 
they  had  reserved  to  be  led  away  captives  into  Upper  Asia,  there 
to  hear  their  doom  from  the  lips  of  King  Darius  himself.  More- 
over, the  men  of  Athens  knew  that  in  the  camp  before  them  was 
their  own  banished  tyrant,  who  was  seeking  to  be  reinstated  by 
foreign  scimiters  in  despotic  sway  over  any  remnant  of  his  country- 
men that  might  survive  the  sack  of  their  town,  and  might  be  left 
behind  as  loo  worthless  for  leading  away  into  Median  bondage. 


THE    BATTLE    OF    MARATHON  9 

The  numerical  disparity  between  the  force  which  the  Athenian 
commanders  had  under  them,  and  that  which  they  were  called  on 
to  encounter,  was  hopelessly  apparent  to  some  of  the  council.  The 
historians  who  wrote  nearest  to  the  time  of  the  battle  do  not  pre- 
tend to  give  any  detailed  statements  of  the  numbers  engaged,  but 
there  are  sufficient  data  for  our  making  a  general  estimate.  Every 
free  Greek  was  trained  to  mihtary  duty;  and,  from  the  incessant 
border  wars  between  the  different  states,  few  Greeks  reached  the 
age  of  manhood  without  having  seen  some  service.  But  the  mus- 
ter-roll of  free  Athenian  citizens  of  an  age  fit  for  military  duty 
never  exceeded  thirty  thousand,  and  at  this  epoch  probably  did 
not  amount  to  two-thirds  of  that  number.  Moi-eover,  the  poorer 
portion  of  these  were  unprovided  with  the  equipments,  and  un- 
trained to  the  operations  of  the  regular  infantry.  Some  detach- 
ments of  the  best-armed  troops  would  be  required  to  garrison  the 
city  itseK  and  man  the  various  fortified  posts  in  the  territory;  so 
that  it  is  impossible  to  reckon  the  fully  equipped  force  that  marched 
from  Athens  to  Marathon,  when  the  news  of  the  Persian  landing 
arrived,  at  higher  than  ten  thousand  men. 

"With  one  exception,  the  other  Greeks  held  back  from  aiding 
them.  Sparta  had  promised  assistance,  but  the  Persians  had  landed 
on  the  sixth  day  of  the  moon,  and  a  religious  scruple  delayed  the 
march  of  Spartan  troops  till  the  moon  should  have  reached  its  full. 
From  one  quarter  only,  and  that  from  a  most  unexpected  one,  did 
Athens  receive  aid  at  the  moment  of  her  great  peril. 

Some  years  before  this  time  the  little  state  of  Platsea  in  Boeotia, 
being  hard  pressed  by  her  powerful  neighbor,  Thebes,  had  asked 
the  protection  of  Athens,  and  had  owed  to  an  Athenian  army  the 
rescue  of  her  independence.  Now  when  it  was  noised  over  Greece 
that  the  Mede  had  come  from  the  uttermost  parts  of  the  earth  to 
destroy  Athens,  the  brave  Plataeans,  unsohcited,  marched  with 
their  whole  force  to  assist  the  defense,  and  to  share  the  fort- 
unes of  their  benefactors.  The  general  levy  of  the  Plataeans 
only  amounted  to  a  thousand  men;  and  this  little  column, 
marching  from  their  city  along  the  southern  ridge  of  Mount 
Cithaeron,  and  thence  across  the  Attic  territory,  joined  the  Athe- 
nian forces  above  Marathon  almost  immediately  before  the  battle. 


10  GREAT   BATTLES    OF    ALL   NATIONS 

The  re-enforcement  was  numerically  small,  but  the  gallant  spirit 
of  the  men  who  composed  it  must  have  naade  it  of  tenfold  value  to 
the  Athenians ;  and  its  presence  must  have  gone  far  to  dispel  the 
cheerless  feeling  of  being  deserted  and  friendless,  which  the  delay 
of  the  Spartan  succors  was  calculated  to  create  among  the  Athe- 
nian ranks. 

This  generous  daring  of  their  weak  but  true-hearted  ally  was 
never  forgotten  at  Athens.  The  Platseans  were  made  the  civil  fel- 
low-countrymen of  the  Athenians,  except  the  right  of  exercising 
certain  political  functions ;  and  from  that  time  forth,  in  the  solemn 
sacrifices  at  Athens,  the  public  prayers  were  offered  up  for  a  joint 
blessing  from  Heaven  upon  the  Athenians,  and  the  Platpeans  also. 

After  the  junction  of  the  column  from  Plataea,  the  Athenian 
commanders  must  have  had  under  them  about  eleven  thousand 
fully-armed  and  discipUned  infantry,  and  probably  a  larger  num- 
ber of  irregular  light-armed  troops ;  as,  besides  the  poorer  citizens 
who  went  to  the  field  armed  with  javelins,  cutlasses,  and  targets, 
each  regular  heavy-armed  soldier  was  attended  in  the  camp  by 
one  or  more  slaves,  who  were  armed  like  the  inferior  freemen. 
Cavalry  or  archers  the  Athenians  (on  this  occasion)  had  none ;  and 
the  use  in  the  field  of  military  engines  was  not  at  that  period  intro- 
duced into  ancient  warfare. 

Contrasted  with  their  own  scanty  forces,  the  Greek  command- 
ers saw  stretched  before  them,  along  the  shores  of  the  winding 
bay,  the  tents  and  shipping  of  the  varied  nations  who  marched  to 
do  the  bidding  of  the  king  of  the  Eastern  world.  The  difficulty  of 
finding  transports  and  of  securing  provisions  would  form  the  only 
limit  to  the  numbers  of  a  Persian  army.  Nor  is  there  any  reason 
to  suppose  the  estimate  of  Justin  exaggerated,  who  rates  at  a  hun- 
dred thousand  the  force  which  on  this  occasion  had  sailed,  under 
the  satraps  Datis  and  Artaphemes,  from  the  Cihcian  shores  against 
the  devoted  coasts  of  Eubcea  and  Attica.  And  after  largely  de- 
ducting from  this  total,  so  as  to  allow  for  mere  mariners  and  camp 
followers,  there  must  still  have  remained  fearful  odds  against  the 
national  levies  of  the  Athenians.  Nor  could  Greek  generals  then 
feel  that  confidence  in  the  superior  quality  of  their  troops  which 
ever  since  the  battle  of  Marathon  has  animated  Europeans  in  con- 


THE    BATTLE    OF    MARATHON  II 

flicts  with  Asiatics ;  as,  for  instance,  in  the  after  struggles  between 
Greece  and  Persia,  or  when  the  Roman  legions  encountered  the 
myriads  of  Mithradates  and  Tigranes,  or  as  is  the  case  in  the  In- 
dian campaigns  of  the  British  regiments.  On  the  contrary,  up  to 
the  day  of  Marathon  the  Medes  and  Persians  were  reputed  invinci- 
ble. They  had  more  than  once  met  Greek  troops  in  Asia  Minor,  in 
Cyprus,  in  Egypt,  and  had  invariably  beaten  them.  Nothing  can 
be  stronger  than  the  expressions  used  by  the  early  Greek  writers 
respecting  the  terror  which  the  name  of  the  Medes  inspired,  and 
the  prostration  of  men's  spirits  before  the  apparently  resistless  ca- 
reer of  the  Persian  arms.  It  is,  therefore,  little  to  be  wondered 
at,  that  five  of  the  ten  Athenian  generals  shrank  from  the  prospect 
of  fighting  a  pitched  battle  against  an  enemy  so  superior  in  num- 
bers and  so  formidable  in  military  renown.  Their  own  position 
on  the  heights  was  strong,  and  offered  great  advantages  to  a  small 
defending  force  against  assaihng  masses.  They  deemed  it  mere 
foolhardiness  to  descend  into  the  plain  to  be  trampled  down  by  the 
Asiatic  horse,  overwhelmed  with  the  archery,  or  cut  to  pieces  by 
the  invincible  veterans  of  Cambyses  and  Cyrus.  Moreover,  Sparta, 
the  great  war-state  of  Greece,  had  been  applied  to,  and  had  prom- 
ised succor  to  Athens,  though  the  religious  observance  which  the 
Dorians  paid  to  certain  times  and  seasons  had  for  the  present  de- 
layed their  march.  Was  it  not  wise,  at  any  rate,  to  wait  till  the 
Spartans  came  up,  and  to  have  the  help  of  the  best  troops  in 
Greece,  before  they  exposed  themselves  to  the  shock  of  the  dreaded 
Medes? 

Specious  as  these  reasons  might  appear,  the  other  five  generals 
were  for  speedier  and  bolder  operations.  And,  fortunately  for 
Athens  and  for  the  world,  one  of  them  was  a  man,  not  only  of 
the  highest  military  genius,  but  also  of  that  energetic  character 
which  impresses  its  own  type  and  ideas  upon  spirits  feebler  in 
conception. 

Miltiades  was  the  head  of  one  of  the  noblest  houses  at  Athens ; 
he  ranked  the  ^acidse  among  his  ancestry,  and  the  blood  of  Achilles 
flowed  in  the  veins  of  the  hero  of  Marathon.  One  of  his  immediate 
ancestors  had  acquired  the  dominion  of  the  Thracian  Chersonese, 
and  thus  the  family  became  at  the  same  time  Athenian  citizens 


12  GREAT    BATTLES    OF    ALL    NATIONS 

and  Thracian  princes.  This  occurred  at  the  time  -when  Pisistratus 
was  tyrant  of  Athens.  Two  of  the  relatives  of  Miltiades — an  uncle 
of  the  same  name,  and  a  brother  named  Stesagoras — had  ruled 
the  Chersonese  before  Miltiades  became  its  prince.  He  had  been 
brought  up  at  Athens  in  the  house  of  his  father,  Cimon,  who  was 
renowned  throughout  Greece  for  his  A^ictories  in  the  Olj'mpic  chariot 
races,  and  who  must  have  been  possessed  of  great  wealth.  The 
sons  of  Pisistratus,  who  succeeded  their  father  in  the  tyranny  at 
Athens,  caused  Cimon  to  be  assassinated;  but  they  treated  the 
young  Mihiades  AWtli  favor  and  kindness,  and  when  his  brother 
Stesagoras  died  in  the  Chersonese,  they  sent  him  out  there  as  lord 
of  the  principahty.  This  was  about  twenty-eight  years  before  the 
battle  of  Marathon,  and  it  is  with  his  arrival  in  the  Chersonese  that 
our  first  knowledge  of  the  career  and  character  of  Miltiades  com- 
mences. "We  find,  in  the  first  act  recorded  of  him,  the  proof  of  the 
same  resolute  and  unscrupulous  spirit  that  marked  his  mature  age. 
His  brother's  authority  in  the  principality  had  been  shaken  by  war 
and  revolt :  Miltiades  determined  to  rule  more  securely.  On  his 
arrival  he  kept  close  within  his  house,  as  if  he  was  mourning  for 
his  brother.  The  principal  men  of  the  Chersonese,  hearing  of  this, 
assembled  from  all  the  towns  and  districts,  and  went  together  to 
the  house  of  Miltiades,  on  a  visit  of  condolence.  As  soon  as  he  had 
thus  got  them  in  his  power,  he  made  them  all  prisoners.  He  then 
asserted  and  maintained  his  o^vn  absolute  authority  in  the  penin- 
sula, taking  into  his  pay  a  body  of  five  hundred  regular  troops,  and 
strengthening  his  interest  by  marrying  the  daughter  of  the  king  of 
the  neighboring  Thracians. 

When  the  Persian  power  was  extended  to  the  Hellespont  and 
its  neighborhood,  Miltiades,  as  prince  of  the  Chersonese,  submitted 
to  King  Darius;  and  he  was  one  of  the  numerous  tributary  rulers 
who  led  their  contingents  of  men  to  serve  in  the  Persian  army,  in 
the  expedition  against  Scythia.  Miltiades  and  the  vassal  Greeks 
of  Asia  Minor  were  left  by  the  Persian  king  in  charge  of  the  bridge 
across  the  Danube,  when  the  invading  army  crossed  that  river  and 
phmged  into  the  wilds  of  the  country  that  now  is  Russia,  in  vain 
pursuit  of  the  ancestors  of  the  modern  Cossacks.  On  learning  the 
reverses  that  Darius  met  with  in  the  Scythian  wilderness,  Miltiades 


THE    BATTLE   OF   MARATHON  »3 

proposed  to  his  companions  that  they  should  break  the  bridge  down 
and  leave  the  Persian  king  and  his  army  to  perish  by  famine  and 
the  Scythian  arrows.  The  rulers  of  the  Asiatic  Greek  cities,  whom 
Miltiades  addressed,  shrank  from  this  bold  but  ruthless  stroke 
against  the  Persian  power,  and  Darius  returned  in  safety.  But 
it  was  known  what  advice  Miltiades  had  given,  and  the  vengeance 
of  Darius  was  thenceforth  specially  directed  against  the  man  who 
had  counseled  such  a  deadly  blow  against  his  empire  and  his  per- 
son. The  occupation  of  the  Persian  arms  in  other  quarters  left 
Miltiades  for  some  years  after  this  in  possession  of  the  Chersonese; 
but  it  was  precarious  and  interrupted.  He,  however,  availed  him- 
self of  the  opportunity  which  his  position  gave  him  of  conciliating 
the  good  will  of  his  fellow-countrymen  at  Athens,  by  conquering 
and  placing  under  the  Athenian  authority  the  islands  of  Lemnos 
and  Imbros,  to  which  Athens  had  ancient  claims,  but  which  she 
had  never  previously  been  able  to  bring  into  complete  subjection. 
At  length,  in  494  B.C.,  the  complete  suppression  of  the  Ionian  re- 
volt by  the  Persians  left  their  armies  and  fleets  at  liberty  to  act 
against  the  enemies  of  the  Great  King  to  the  west  of  the  Helles- 
pont. A  strong  squadron  of  Phoenician  galleys  was  sent  against 
the  Chersonese.  Miltiades  knew  that  resistance  was  hopeless ;  and 
while  the  Phoenicians  were  at  Tenedos,  he  loaded  five  galleys  with 
all  the  treasure  that  he  could  collect,  and  sailed  away  for  Athens. 
The  Phoenicians  fell  in  with  him,  and  chased  him  hard  along  the 
north  of  the  u3Egean.  One  of  his  galleys,  on  board  of  which  was 
his  eldest  son  Metiochus,  was  actually  captured.  But  Miltiades, 
with  the  other  four,  succeeded  in  reaching  the  fi'iendly  coast  of 
Imbros  in  safety.  Thence  he  afterward  proceeded  to  Athens,  and 
resumed  his  station  as  a  free  citizen  of  the  Athenian  common- 
wealth. 

The  Athenians,  at  this  time,  had  recently  expelled  Hippias,  the 
son  of  Pisistratus,  the  last  of  their  tyrants.  They  were  in  the  full 
glow  of  their  newly-recovered  liberty  and  equality ;  and  the  con- 
stitutional changes  of  Cleisthenes  had  inflamed  their  repubhcan 
zeal  to  the  utmost.  Miltiades  had  enemies  at  Athens;  and  these, 
availing  themselves  of  the  state  of  popular  feeling,  brought  him 
to  trial  for  his  life  for  having  been  tyrant  of  the  Chersonese.     Th» 


14  GREAT   BATTLES    OF   ALL   NATIONS 

charge  did  not  necessarily  import  any  acts  of  cruelty  or  wrong  to 
individuals :  it  was  founded  on  no  specific  law ;  but  it  was  based 
on  the  horror  with  which  the  Greeks  of  that  age  regarded  every 
man  who  made  himself  arbitrary  master  of  his  fellowmen,  and  ex- 
ercised irresponsible  dominion  over  them.  The  fact  of  Miltiades 
having  so  ruled  in  the  Chersonese  was  undeniable ;  but  the  ques- 
tion which  the  Athenians  assembled  in  judgment  must  have  tried, 
was  whether  Miltiades,  although  tyrant  of  the  Chersonese,  de- 
served punishment  as  an  Athenian  citizen.  The  eminent  service 
that  he  had  done  the  state  in  conquering  Lemnos  and  Imbros  for 
it  pleaded  strongly  in  his  favor.  The  people  refused  to  convict 
him.  He  stood  high  in  pubHc  opinion.  And  when  the  coming 
invasion  of  the  Persians  was  known,  the  people  wisely  elected  him 
one  of  their  generals  for  the  year. 

Two  other  men  of  high  eminence  in  history,  though  their  re- 
nown was  achieved  at  a  later  period  than  that  of  Miltiades,  were 
also  among  the  ten  Athenian  generals  at  Marathon.  One  was 
Themistocles,  the  future  foiuider  of  the  Athenian  navy,  and  the 
destined  victor  of  Salamis.  The  other  was  Aristides,  who  after- 
ward led  the  Athenian  troops  at  Platsea,  and  whose  integrity  and 
just  popularity  acquired  for  his  country,  when  the  Persians  had 
finally  been  repulsed,  the  advantageous  pre-eminence  of  being  ac- 
knowledged by  half  of  the  Greeks  as  their  imperial  leader  and  pro- 
tector. It  is  not  recorded  what  part  either  Themistocles  or  Aris- 
tides took  in  the  debate  of  the  council  of  war  at  Marathon.  But, 
from  the  character  of  Themistocles,  his  boldness,  and  his  intuitive 
genius  for  extemporizing  the  best  measures  in  every  emergency  (a 
quahty  which  the  greatest  of  historians  ascribes  to  him  beyond  all 
his  contemporaries),  we  may  weU  believe  that  the  vote  of  Themis- 
tocles was  for  prompt  and  decisive  action.  On  the  vote  of  Aris- 
tides it  may  be  more  difficult  to  speculate.  His  predilection  for  the 
Spartans  may  have  made  him  wish  to  wait  till  they  came  up;  but, 
though  circumspect,  he  was  neither  timid  as  a  soldier  nor  as  a  poli- 
tician, and  the  bold  advice  of  Miltiades  may  probably  have  found 
in  Aristides  a  willing,  most  assuredly  it  found  in  him  a  candid, 
hearer. 

Miltiades  felt  no  hesitation  as  to  the  course  which  the  Athenian 


THE   BATTLE   OF   MARATHON  15 

army  ought  to  pursue ;  and  earnestly  did  he  press  his  opinion  on 
his  brother  generals.  Practically  acquainted  with  the  organization 
of  the  Persian  armies,  Miltiades  felt  convinced  of  the  superiority 
of  the  Greek  troops,  if  properly  handled ;  he  saw  with  the  mihtary 
eye  of  a  great  general  the  advantage  which  the  position  of  the 
forces  gave  him  for  a  sudden  attack,  and  as  a  profound  politician 
he  felt  the  perils  of  remaining  inactive,  and  of  giving  treachery 
time  to  ruin  the  Athenian  cause. 

One  officer  in  the  council  of  war  had  not  yet  voted.  This  was 
Callimachus,  the  War-ruler.  The  votes  of  the  generals  were  five 
and  five,  so  that  the  voice  of  CaUimachus  would  be  decisive. 

On  that  vote,  in  all  human  probability,  the  destiny  of  all  the 
nations  of  the  world  depended.  Miltiades  turned  to  him,  and  in 
simple  soldierly  eloquence,  the  substance  of  which  we  may  read 
faithfully  reported  in  Herodotus,  who  had  conversed  with  the  vet- 
erans of  Marathon,  the  great  Athenian  thus  adjured  his  country- 
man to  vote  for  giving  battle : 

"It  now  rests  with  you,  Callimachus,  either  to  enslave  Athens, 
or,  by  assuring  her  freedom,  to  win  yourself  an  immortality  of 
fame,  such  as  not  even  Harmodius  and  Aristogiton  have  acquired; 
for  never,  since  the  Athenians  were  a  people,  were  they  in  such 
danger  as  they  are  in  at  this  moment.  If  they  bow  the  knee  to 
these  Medes,  they  are  to  be  given  up  to  Hippias,  and  you  know 
what  they  then  wQl  have  to  suffer.  But  if  Athens  comes  victori- 
ous out  of  this  contest,  she  has  it  in  her  to  become  the  first  city  of 
Greece.  Your  vote  is  to  decide  whether  we  are  to  join  battle  or 
not.  If  we  do  not  bring  on  a  battle  presently,  somo  factious  in- 
trigue will  disunite  the  Athenians,  and  the  city  will  be  betrayed 
to  the  Medes.  But  if  we  fight,  before  there  is  anything  rotten  in 
the  state  of  Athens,  I  beheve  that,  provided  the  gods  will  give 
fair  play  and  no  favor,  we  are  able  to  get  the  best  of  it  in  an 
engagement." 

The  vote  of  the  brave  War-ruler  was  gained,  the  council  deter- 
mined to  give  battle ;  and  such  was  the  ascendency  and  acknowl- 
edged mihtary  eminence  of  Miltiades,  that  his  brother  generals  one 
and  all  gave  up  their  days  of  command  to  him,  and  cheerfully  acted 
under  his  orders.     Fearful,  however,  of  creating  any  jealousy,  and 


i6  GREAT   BATTLES   OF   ALL   NATIONS 

of  so  failing  to  obtain  the  vigorous  co-operation  of  all  parts  of  his 
small  army,  Miltiades  waited  till  the  day  when  the  chief  command 
would  have  come  round  to  him  in  regular  rotation  before  he  led  the 
troops  against  the  enemy. 

The  inaction  of  the  Asiatic  commanders  during  this  interval  ap- 
pears strange  at  first  sight ;  but  Hippias  was  with  them,  and  they 
and  he  were  aware  of  their  chance  of  a  bloodless  conquest  through 
the  machinations  of  his  partisans  among  the  Athenians.  The 
nature  of  the  ground  also  explains  in  many  points  the  tactics  of 
the  opposite  generals  before  the  battle,  as  well  as  the  operations 
of  the  troops  during  the  engagement. 

The  plain  of  Marathon,  which  is  about  twenty-two  miles  distant 
from  Athens,  lies  along  the  bay  of  the  same  name  on  the  north- 
eastern coast  of  Attica.  The  plain  is  nearly  in  the  form  of  a  cres- 
cent, and  about  six  nules  in  length.  It  is  about  two  miles  broad 
in  the  center,  where  the  space  between  the  mountains  and  the  sea 
is  greatest,  but  it  narrows  toward  either  extremitj',  the  mountains 
coming  close  down  to  the  water  at  the  horns  of  the  bay.  There  is 
a  valley  trending  inward  from  the  middle  of  the  plain,  and  a  ravine 
comes  down  to  it  to  the  southward.  Elsewhere  it  is  closely  girt 
round  on  the  land  side  by  rugged  limestone  mountains,  which  are 
thickly  studded  with  pines,  oHve-trees  and  cedars,  and  overgrown 
with  the  myrtle,  arbutus,  and  the  other  low  odoriferous  shrubs  that 
everywhere  perfume  the  Attic  air.  The  level  of  the  ground  is  now 
varied  by  the  mound  raised  over  those  who  fell  in  the  battle,  but 
it  was  an  unbroken  plain  when  the  Persians  encamped  on  it.  There 
are  marshes  at  each  end,  which  are  dry  in  spring  and  summer  and 
then  offer  no  obstruction  to  the  horseman,  but  are  commonly  flooded 
with  rain  and  so  rendered  impracticable  for  cavalry  in  the  autumn, 
the  time  of  year  at  which  the  action  took  place. 

The  Greeks,  lying  encamped  on  the  mountains,  could  watch 
every  movement  of  the  Persians  on  the  plain  below,  while  they 
were  enabled  completely  to  mask  their  own.  Miltiades  also  had, 
from  his  position,  the  power  of  giving  battle  whenever  he  pleased, 
or  of  delaying  it  at  his  discretion,  unless  Datis  were  to  attempt  the 
perilous  operation  of  storming  the  heights. 

If  we  turn  to  the  map  of  the  Old  World,  to  test  the  comparative 


THE    BATTLE   OF    MARATHON  17 

territorial  resources  of  the  two  states  whose  armies  were  now  about 
to  come  into  conflict,  the  immense  preponderance  of  the  material 
power  of  the  Persian  king  over  that  of  the  Athenian  republic  is 
more  striking  than  any  similar  contrast  which  historj'  can  supply. 
It  has  been  truly  remarked  that,  in  estimating  mere  areas,  Attica, 
containing  on  its  whole  surface  only  seven  hundred  square  miles, 
shrinks  into  insignificance  if  compared  with  many  a  baronial  fief 
of  the  Middle  Ages,  or  many  a  colonial  allotment  of  modern  times. 
Its  antagonist,  the  Persian  empire,  comprised  the  whole  of  modern 
Asiatic  and  much  of  modern  European  Turkey,  the  modern  king- 
dom of  Persia,  and  the  countries  of  modern  Georgia,  Armenia, 
Balkh,  the  Punjaub,  Afghanistan,  Beloochistan,  Egypt,  and 
TripoU. 

Nor  could  a  European,  in  the  beginning  of  the  fifth  century 
before  our  era,  look  upon  this  huge  accumulation  of  power  beneath 
the  scepter  of  a  single  Asiatic  ruler  with  the  indifference  with 
which  we  now  observe  on  the  map  the  extensive  dominions  of 
modern  Oriental  sovereigns;  for,  as  has  been  already  remarked, 
before  Marathon  was  fought,  the  prestige  of  success  and  of  sup- 
posed superiority  of  race  was  on  the  side  of  the  Asiatic  against  the 
European.  Asia  was  the  original  seat  of  human  societies,  and 
long  before  any  trace  can  be  found  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  rest 
of  the  world  having  emerged  from  the  rudest  barbarism,  we  can 
perceive  that  mighty  and  brilKant  empires  flourished  in  the  Asiatic 
continent.  They  appear  before  us  through  the  twilight  of  primeval 
history,  dim  and  indistinct,  but  massive  and  majestic,  like  moun- 
tains in  the  early  dawn. 

Instead,  however,  of  the  infinite  variety  and  restless  change 
which  has  characterized  the  institutions  and  fortunes  of  European 
states  ever  since  the  commencement  of  the  civilization  of  that  con- 
tinent, a  monotonous  uniformity  pervades  the  histories  of  nearly 
all  Oriental  empires,  from  the  most  ancient  down  to  the  most  re- 
cent times.  They  are  characterized  by  the  rapidity  of  their  early 
conquests,  by  the  immense  extent  of  the  dominions  comprised  in 
them,  by  the  establishment  of  a  satrap  or  pasha  system  of  gov- 
erning the  provinces,  by  an  invariable  and  speedy  degeneracy  in 
the  princes  of   the  royal   house,   the  effeminate   nurslings  of  the 


I8  GREAT    BATTLES    OF    ALL    NATIONS 

seraglio  succeeding  to  the  warrior  sovereigns  reared  in  the  camp, 
and  by  the  internal  anarchy  and  insurrections  which  indicate  and 
accelerate  the  decline  and  fall  of  these  unwieldy  and  ill-organized 
fabrics  of  power.  It  is  also  a  striking  fact  that  the  governments 
of  all  the  great  Asiatic  empires  have  in  all  ages  been  absolute  des- 
potisms. And  Heeren  is  right  in  connecting  this  with  another 
great  fact,  which  is  important  from  its  influence  both  on  the  politi- 
cal and  the  social  life  of  Asiatics.  "Among  all  the  considerable 
nations  of  Inner  Asia,  the  paternal  government  of  every  household 
was  corrupted  by  polygamy :  where  that  custom  exists,  a  good  po- 
litical constitution  is  impossible.  Fathers,  being  converted  into 
domestic  despots,  are  ready  to  pay  the  same  abject  obedience  to 
their  sovereign  which  they  exact  from  their  family  and  dependents 
in  their  domestic  economy."  We  should  bear  in  mind,  also,  the 
inseparable  connection  between  the  state  rehgion  and  all  legislation 
which  has  always  prevailed  in  the  East,  and  the  constant  existence 
of  a  powerful  sacerdotal  body,  exercising  some  check,  though  pre- 
carious and  irregular,  over  the  throne  itself,  grasping  at  all  civil 
administration,  claiming  the  supreme  control  of  education,  stereo- 
typing the  Knes  in  which  literature  and  science  must  move,  and 
limiting  the  extent  to  which  it  shall  be  lawful  for  the  human  mind 
to  prosecute  its  inqmries. 

With  these  general  characteristics  rightly  felt  and  understood 
it  becomes  a  comparatively  easy  task  to  investigate  and  appreciate 
the  origin,  progress  and  principles  of  Oriental  empires  in  general, 
as  well  as  of  the  Persian  monarchy  in  particular.  And  we  are 
thus  better  enabled  to  appreciate  the  repulse  which  Greece  gave 
to  the  arms  of  the  East,  and  to  judge  of  the  probable  consequences 
to  human  civilization,  if  the  Persians  had  succeeded  in  bringing 
Europe  under  their  yoke,  as  they  had  already  subjugated  the  fair- 
est portions  of  the  rest  of  the  then  known  world. 

The  Greeks,  from  their  geographical  position,  formed  the  nat- 
ural vanguard  of  European  Hberty  against  Persian  ambition ;  and 
they  pre-eminently  displayed  the  sahent  points  of  distinctive  na- 
tional character  which  have  rendered  European  civiUzation  so  far 
superior  to  Asiatic.  The  nations  that  dwelt  in  ancient  times  around 
and  near  the  northern  shores  of  the  Mediterranean  Sea  were  the 


THE   BATTLE    OF    MARATHON  I9 

first  in  Europe  to  receive  from  the  East  the  rudiments  of  art  and 
hterature,    and    the   germs  of  social   and   pohtical  organizations. 
Of  these  nations  the  Greeks,  through  their  vicinity  to  Asia  Minor, 
Phoenicia,  and  'E^gypt,  were  among  the  very  foremost  in  acquiring 
the  principles  and  habits  of  civihzed  life;   and  they  also  at  once 
imparted  a  new  and  wholly  original  stamp  on  all  which  they  re- 
ceived.    Thus,  in  their  religion,  they  received  from  foreign  settlers 
the  names  of  all  their  deities  and  many  of  their  rites,  but  they  dis- 
carded the  loathsome  monstrosities  of  the  Nile,  the  Orontes,  and 
the  Ganges;    they  nationahzed  their  creed;    and  their  own  poets 
created  their  beautiful  mythology.     No  sacerdotal  caste  ever  ex- 
isted in  Greece.     So,  in  their  governments,  they  lived  long  under 
hereditary  kings,  but  never  endured  the  permanent  estabhshment 
of  absolute  monarchy.     Their  eariy  kings  were  constitutional  rulers, 
governing  with  defined  prerogatives.     And  long  before  the  Persian 
invasion,  the  kingly  form  of  government  had  given  way  in  almost 
all  the  Greek  states  to  repubhcan  institutions,  presenting  mfinite 
varieties  of  the  blendmg  or  the  alternate  predominance  of  the  oh- 
garchical  and  democratical  principles.     In  Hterature  and  science 
the  Greek  intellect  followed  no  beaten  track,  and  acknowledged 
no  limitary  rules.     The  Greeks  thought  their  subjects  boldly  out; 
and  the  novelty  of  a  speculation  invested  it  in  their  minds  with  in- 
terest, and  not  with  criminality.     Versatile,  restless,  enterprising, 
and  self-confident,  the  Greeks  presented  the  most  striking  contrast 
to  the  habitual  quietude  and  submissiveness  of  the  Orientals;  and, 
of  all  the  Greeks,  the  Athenians  exhibited  these  national  character- 
istics in  the  strongest  degree.     This  spirit  of  activity  and  daring, 
joined  to  a  generous  sympathy  for  the  fate  of  their  fellow-Greeks 
in  Asia,  had  led  them  to  join  in  the  last  Ionian  war,  and  now- 
mingling  with  their  abhorrence  of  the  usurping  family  of  their  own 
citizens,  which  for  a  period  had  forcibly  seized  on  and  exercised 
despotic  power  at  Athens— nerved  them  to  defy  the  wrath  of  King 
Darius,  and  to  refuse  to  receive  back  at  his  bidding  the  tyrant 
whom  they  had  some  years  before  driven  out. 

The  enterprise  and  genius  of  an  Englishman  have  lately  con- 
firmed by  fresh  evidence,  and  invested  with  fresh  interest,  the 
might  of  the  Persian  monarch  who  sent  his  troops  to  combat  at 


20  QREAT    BATTLES    OF   ALL   NATIONS 

Marathon.  Inscriptions  in  a  character  termed  the  Arrow-headed 
or  Cuneiform  had  long  been  known  to  exist  on  the  marble  monu- 
ments at  Persepolis,  near  the  site  of  the  ancient  Susa,  and  on  the 
faces  of  rocks  in  other  places  formerly  ruled  over  by  the  early  Per- 
sian kings.  But  for  thousands  of  years  they  had  been  mere  unin- 
telhgible  enigmas  to  the  curious  but  baffled  beholder;  and  they 
were  often  referred  to  as  instances  of  the  folly  of  human  pride, 
which  could  indeed  write  its  own  praises  in  the  solid  rock,  but  only 
for  the  rock  to  outlive  the  language  as  well  as  the  memory  of  the 
vainglorious  inscribers.  The  elder  Niebuhr,  Grotefend,  and  Las- 
sen, had  made  some  guesses  at  the  meaning  of  the  Cuneiform  let- 
ters; but  Major  Rawhnson,  of  the  East  India  Company's  service, 
after  years  of  labor,  has  at  last  accompUshed  the  glorious  achieve- 
ment of  fully  revealing  the  alphabet  and  the  grammar  of  this  long 
unknown  tongue.  He  has,  in  particular,  full}^  deciphered  and  ex- 
pounded the  inscription  on  the  sacred  rock  of  Behistun,  on  the 
western  frontiers  of  Media.  These  records  of  the  Achaemenidse 
have  at  length  found  their  interpreter;  and  Darius  himself  speaks 
to  us  from  the  consecrated  mountain,  and  tells  us  the  names  of 
the  nations  that  obeyed  him,  the  revolts  that  he  suppressed,  his 
victories,  his  piety,  and  his  glory. 

Kings  who  thus  seek  the  admiration  of  posteritj^  are  little  hkely 
to  dim  the  record  of  their  successes  by  the  mention  of  their  occa- 
sional defeats;  and  it  throws  no  suspicion  on  the  narrative  of  the 
Greek  historians  that  we  find  these  inscriptions  silent  respecting 
the  overthrow  of  Datis  and  Artaphernes,  as  well  as  respecting  the 
reverses  ■\vhich  Darius  sustained  in  person  during  his  Scythian  cam- 
paigns. But  these  indisputable  monuments  of  Persian  fame  con- 
firm and  even  increase  the  opinion  with  which  Herodotus  inspires 
us  of  the  vast  power  which  Cyrus  founded  and  Cambyses  increased ; 
which  Darius  augmented  by  Indian  and  Arabian  conquests,  and 
seemed  likely,  when  he  directed  his  arms  against  Europe,  to  make 
the  predominant  monarchy  of  the  world. 

With  the  exception  of  the  Chinese  empire,  in  which,  through- 
out all  ages  down  to  the  last  few  years,  one-third  of  the  himian 
race  has  dwelt  almost  unconnected  with  the  other  portions,  all  the 
great  kingdoms,  which  we  know  to  have  existed  in  ancient  Asia, 


THE    BATTLE    OF    MARATHON 


21 


were,  in  Darius's  time,  blended  into  the  Persian.     The  northern  In- 
dians, the  Assyrians,  the  Syrians,  the  Babylonians,  the  Chaldees, 
the  Phcenioians,  the  nations  of  Palestine,  the  Armenians,  the  Bac- 
trians  the  Lydians,  the  Phrygians,  the  Parthians,  and  the  Medes, 
all  obeyed  the  scepter  of  the  Great  King:  the  Medes  standing  next 
to  the  native  Persians  in  honor,  and  the  empire  being  frequently 
spoken  of  as  that  of  the  Medes,  or  as  that  of  the  Medes  and  Per- 
sians     Egypt  and  Cyrene  were  Persian  provinces;  the  Greek  col- 
onists in  Asia  Minor  and  the  islands  of  the  ^gean  were  Danus's 
subjects;  and  their  gallant  bnt  unsuccessful  attempts  tc  throw  ofiE 
the  Persian  yoke  had  only  served  to  rivet  it  more  strongly  and  to 
increase  the  general  belief  that  the  Greeks  could  not  stand  before 
the  Persians  in  a  field  of  battle.     Darius's  Scythian  war,  though 
unsuccessful  in  its  immediate  object,  had  brought  about  the  sub- 
jugation of  Thrace  and  the  submission  of  Macedonia.     From  the 
Indus  to  the  Peneus  all  was  his. 

We  may  imagine  the  wrath  with  which  the  lord  of  so  many 
nations  must  have  heard,  nine  years  before  the  battle  of  Marathon, 
that  a  strange  nation  toward  the  setting  sun,  called  the  Athemans, 
had  dared  to  help  his  rebels  in  Ionia  against  him,  and  that  they 
had  plundered  and  burned  the  capital  of  one  of  his  provmces.     Be- 
fore the  burning  of  Sardis,  Darius  seems  never  to  have  heard  of 
the  existence  of  Athens;   but  his  satraps  in  Asia  Minor  had  for 
some  time  seen  Athenian  refugees  at  their  provincial  courts  nnplor- 
i„g  assistance  against   their  fellow-countrymen.      When   H.ppias 
was  driven  away  from  Athens,  and  the  tyrannic  dynasty  of  the 
Pisistratid«=  finally  overthrown  in  510  B.C.,  the  bamshed  tryant 
and  his  adherents,  after  vainly  seeking  to  be  restored  by  Spartan 
intervention,  had  betaken  themselves  to  Sardis,  the  capital  city 
of  the  satrapy  of  Artaphemes.     There  Hippias  (in  the  expressive 
words  of  Herodotus)  began  every  kind  of  agitation,  slandering  the 
Athenians  before  Artaphernes,  and  doing  all  he  could  to  induce 
the  satrap  to  place  Athens  in  subjection  to  him,  as  the  tributary 
vassal  of  King  Darius.     When  the  Athenians  heard  of  his  prac- 
tices they  sent  envoys  to  Sardis  to  remonstrate  with  the  Persians 
against  taking  up  the  quarrel  of  the  Athenian  refugees. 

But  Artaphernes  gave  them  in  reply  a  menacing  command  to 


22  GREAT    BATTLES    OF   ALL    NATIONS 

receive  Hippias  back  again  if  they  looked  for  safety.  The  Athe- 
nians were  resolved  not  to  purchase  safety  at  such  a  price,  and 
after  rejecting  the  satrap's  terms,  they  considered  that  they  and 
the  Persians  were  declared  enemies.  At  this  very  crisis  the  Ionian 
Greeks  implored  the  assistance  of  their  European  brethren,  to  en- 
able them  to  recover  their  independence  from  Persia.  Athens,  and 
the  city  of  Eretria  in  Eubcea,  alone  consented.  Twenty  Athenian 
galleys,  and  five  Eretrian,  crossed  the  -<^gean  Sea,  and,  by  a  bold 
and  sudden  march  upon  Sardis,  the  Athenians  and  their  aUies  suc- 
ceeded in  capturing  the  capital  city  of  the  haughty  satrap,  who 
had  recently  menaced  them  with  servitude  or  destruction.  They 
were  pursued,  and  defeated  on  their  return  to  the  coast,  and  Athens 
took  no  further  part  in  the  Ionian  war;  but  the  insult  that  she  had 
put  upon  the  Persian  power  was  speedily  made  known  throughout 
that  empire,  and  was  never  to  be  forgiven  or  forgotten.  In  the 
emphatic  simplicity  of  the  narrative  of  Herodotus,  the  wrath  of 
the  Great  King  is  thus  described :  "Now  when  it  was  told  to  King 
Darius  that  Sardis  had  been  taken  and  burned  by  the  Athenians 
and  lonians,  he  took  small  heed  of  the  lonians,  well  knowing  who 
they  were,  and  that  their  revolt  would  soon  be  put  down ;  but  he 
asked  who,  and  what  manner  of  men,  the  Athenians  were.  And 
when  he  had  been  told,  he  called  for  his  bow ;  and,  ha^-ing  taken 
it,  and  placed  an  arrow  on  the  string,  he  let  the  arrow  fly  toward 
heaven;  and  as  he  shot  it  into  the  air,  he  said,  'Oh!  supreme  God, 
grant  me  that  I  may  avenge  myself  on  the  Athenians. '  And  when 
he  had  said  this,  he  appointed  one  of  his  servants  to  say  to  him 
every  day  as  he  sat  at  meat,  '  Sire,  remember  the  Athenians. '  ' ' 

Some  years  were  occupied  in  the  complete  reduction  of  Ionia. 
But  when  this  was  effected,  Darius  ordered  his  victorious  forces 
to  proceed  to  punish  Athens  and  Eretria,  and  to  conquer  European 
Greece.  The  first  armament  sent  for  this  purpose  was  shattered 
by  shipwreck,  and  nearly  destroyed  off  Mount  Athos.  But  the 
purpose  of  King  Darius  was  not  easily  shaken.  A  larger  army 
was  ordered  to  be  collected  in  Cilicia,  and  requisitions  were  sent 
to  all  the  maritime  cities  of  the  Persian  empire  for  ships  of  war, 
and  for  transports  of  sufficient  size  for  carrying  cavalrj^  as  well  as 
infantry  across  the  -<Egean.     AVhile  these  preparations  were  being 


THE    BATTLE    OF   MARATHON  23 

made,  Darius  sent  heralds  round  to  the  Grecian  cities  demanding 
their  submission  to  Persia.  It  was  proclaimed  in  the  market-place 
of  each  little  Hellenic  state  (some  with  territories  not  larger  than 
the  Isle  of  Wight)  that  King  Darius,  the  lord  of  all  men,  from  the 
rising  to  the  setting  sun,  required  earth  and  water  to  be  delivered 
to  his  heralds,  as  a  symbolical  acknowledgment  that  he  was  head 
and  master  of  the  country.  Terror-stricken  at  the  power  of  Persia 
and  at  the  severe  punishment  that  had  recently  been  inflicted  on  the 
refractory  lonians,  many  of  the  continental  Greeks  and  nearly  all 
the  islanders  submitted,  and  gave  the  required  tokens  of  vassalage. 
At  Sparta  and  Athens  an  indignant  refusal  was  returned — a  re- 
fusal which  was  disgraced  by  outrage  and  violence  against  the 
persons  of  the  Asiatic  heralds. 

Fresh  fuel  was  thus  added  to  the  anger  of  Darius  against 
Athens,  and  the  Persian  preparations  went  on  with  renewed 
vigor.  In  the  summer  of  490  B.C.,  the  army  destined  for  the 
invasion  was  assembled  in  the  Aleian  plain  of  Cilicia,  near  the 
sea.  A  fleet  of  six  hundred  galleys  and  numerous  transports  was 
collected  on  the  coast  for  the  embarkation  of  troops,  horse  as  well 
as  foot.  A  Median  general  named  Datis,  and  Artaphernes,  the 
son  of  the  satrap  of  Sardis,  and  who  was  also  nephew  of  Darius, 
were  placed  in  titular  joint  command  of  the  expedition.  The  real 
supreme  authority  was  probably  given  to  Datis  alone,  from  the 
way  in  which  the  Greek  writers  speak  of  him.  We  know  no  de- 
tails of  the  previous  career  of  this  officer;  but  there  is  every  reason 
to  believe  that  his  abilities  and  bravery  had  been  proved  hj  expe- 
rience, or  his  Median  birth  would  have  prevented  his  being  placed 
in  high  command  by  Darius.  He  appears  to  have  been  the  first 
Mede  who  was  thus  trusted  by  the  Persian  kings  after  the  over- 
throw of  the  conspiracy  of  the  Median  magi  against  the  Persians 
immediately  before  Darius  obtained  the  throne.  Datis  received 
instructions  to  complete  the  subjugation  of  Greece,  and  especial 
orders  were  given  him  with  regard  to  Eretria  and  Athens.  He 
was  to  take  these  two  cities,  and  he  was  to  lead  the  inhabitants 
away  captive,  and  bring  them  as  slaves  into  the  presence  of  the 
Great  King. 

Datis  embarked  his  forces  in  the  fleet  that  awaited  them,  and. 


24  GREAT    BATTLES    OF    ALL    NATIONS 

coasting  along  the  shores  of  Asia  Minor  till  he  was  off  Samos,  he 
thence  sailed  due  westward  through  the  ^gean  Sea  for  Greece, 
taking  the  islands  in  his  way.  The  Naxians  had,  ten  years  before, 
successfully  stood  a  siege  against  a  Persian  armament,  but  they 
now  were  too  terrified  to  offer  any  resistance,  and  fled  to  the  moun- 
tain tops,  while  the  enemy  burned  their  town  and  laid  waste  their 
lands.  Thence  Datis,  compelling  the  Greek  islanders  to  join  him 
with  their  ships  and  men,  sailed  onward  to  the  coast  of  Eubcea. 
The  little  town  of  Carystus  essayed  resistance,  but  was  quickly 
overpowered.  He  next  attacked  Eretria.  The  Athenians  sent 
four  thousand  men  to  its  aid ;  but  treachery  was  at  work  among 
the  Eretrians;  and  the  Athenian  force  received  timely  warning 
from  one  of  the  leading  men  of  the  city  to  retire  to  aid  in  saving 
their  own  country,  instead  of  remaining  to  share  in  the  inevitable 
destruction  of  Eretria.  Left  to  themselves,  the  Eretrians  repulsed 
the  assaults  of  the  Persians  against  their  walls  for  six  days;  on  the 
seventh  they  were  betrayed  by  two  of  their  chiefs,  and  the  Persians 
occupied  the  city.  The  temples  were  burned  in  revenge  for  the 
firing  of  Sardis,  and  the  inhabitants  were  bound,  and  placed  as 
prisoners  in  the  neighboring  islet  of  -(Egilia,  to  wait  there  till  Datis 
should  bring  the  Athenians  to  join  them  in  captivity,  when  both 
populations  were  to  be  led  into  Upper  Asia,  there  to  learn  their 
doom  from  the  lips  of  King  Darius  himself. 

Flushed  with  success,  and  with  half  his  mission  thus  accom- 
plished, Datis  re-embarked  his  troops,  and,  crossing  the  little  chan- 
nel that  separates  Eubcea  from  the  mainland,  he  encamped  his 
troops  on  the  Attic  coast  at  Marathon,  drawing  up  his  galleys  on 
the  slielving  beach,  as  was  the  custom  with  the  na\'ies  of  antiquity. 
The  conquered  islands  behind  him  served  as  places  of  deposit  for 
his  provisions  and  military  stores.  His  position  at  Marathon  seemed 
to  him  in  every  respect  advantageous,  and  the  level  nature  of  the 
ground  on  which  he  camped  was  favorable  for  the  employment  of 
his  cavalry,  if  the  Athenians  should  venture  to  engage  him.  Hip- 
pias,  who  accompanied  him,  and  acted  as  the  guide  of  the  invaders, 
had  pointed  out  Marathon  as  the  best  place  for  a  landing,  for  this 
very  reason.  Probably  Hippias  was  also  influenced  by  the  recol- 
lection that,  forty -seven  jyears  previously,  he,  with  his  father  Pisis- 


THE    BATTLE    OF    MARATHON  25 

tratus,  had  crossed  with  an  army  from  Eretria  to  Marathon,  and 
had  won  an  easy  victory  over  their  Atlienian  enemies  on  that  very 
plain,  which  had  restored  them  to  tyrannic  power.  The  omen 
seemed  cheering.  The  place  was-  the  same,  but  Hippias  soon 
learned  to  his  cost  how  great  a  change  had  come  over  the  spirit 
of  the  Athenians. 

But  though  "the  fierce  democracy"  of  Athens  was  zealous  and 
true  against  foreign  invader  and  domestic^  tyrant,  a  faction  existed 
in  Athens,  as  at  Eretria,  who  were  wilhng  to  purchase  a  party  tri- 
umph over  their  fellow-citizens  at  the  price  of  their  country's  ruin. 
Communications  were  opened  between  these  men  and  the  Persian 
camp,  which  would  have  led  to  a  catastrophe  like  that  of  Eretria, 
if  Miltiades  had  not  resolved  and  persuaded  his  colleagues  to  re- 
solve on  fighting  at  all  hazards. 

When  Miltiades  arrayed  his  men  for  action,  he  staked,  on  the 
arbitrament  of  one  battle,  not  only  the  fate  of  Athens,  but  that  of 
all  Greece ;  for  if  Athens  had  fallen,  no  other  Greek  state,  except 
Lacedsemon,  would  have  had  the  courage  to  resist ;  and  the  Lace- 
daemonians, though  they  would  probably  have  died  in  their  ranks 
to  the  last  man,  never  could  have  successfully  resisted  the  victori- 
ous Persians  and  the  numerous  Greek  troops  which  would  have 
soon  marched  under  the  Persian  satraps,  had  they  prevailed  over 
Athens. 

Noj  was  there  any  power  to  the  westward  of  Greece  that  could 
have  offered  an  effectual  opposition  to  Persia,  had  she  once  con- 
quered Greece,  and  made  that  country  a  basis  for  future  mihtary 
operations.  Rome  was  at  this  time  in  her  season  of  utmost  weak- 
ness. Her  dynasty  of  powerful  Etruscan  kings  had  been  driven 
out ;  and  her  infant  commonwealth  was  reeling  under  the  attacks 
of  the  Etruscans  and  Volscians  from  without,  and  the  fierce  dis- 
sensions between  the  patricians  and  plebeians  within.  Etruria,  with 
her  Lucumos  and  serfs,  was  no  match  for  Persia.  Samnium  had 
not  grown  into  the  might  which  she  afterward  put  forth ;  nor  could 
the  Greek  colonies  in  South  Italy  and  Sicily  hope  to  conquer  when 
their  parent  states  had  perished.  Carthage  had  escaped  the  Per- 
sian yoke  in  the  time  of  Cambyses,  through  the  reluctance  of  the 
Phoenician  mariners  to  serve  against  their  kinsmen.     But  such  for- 


26  GREAT    BATTLES    OF   ALL    NATIONS 

bearance  could  not  long  have  been  relied  on,  and  the  future  rival 
of  Rome  would  have  become  as  submissive  a  minister  of  the  Per- 
sian power  as  were  the  Phoenician  cities  themselves.  If  we  turn 
to  Spain,  or  if  we  pass  the  great  mountain  chain  which,  prolonged 
through  the  Pyrenees,  the  Cevennes,  the  Alps,  and  the  Balkan, 
divides  Northern  from  Southern  Europe,  we  shall  find  nothing  at 
that  period  but  mere  savage  Finns,  Celts,  Slavs,  and  Teutons. 
Had  Persia  beaten  Athens  at  Marathon,  she  could  have  found  no 
obstacle  to  prevent  Darius,  the  chosen  servant  of  Ormuzd,  from 
advancing  his  sway  over  all  the  known  Western  races  of  mankind. 
The  infant  energies  of  Europe  would  have  been  trodden  out  be- 
neath universal  conquest,  and  the  history  of  the  world,  like  the 
history  of  Asia,  have  become  a  mere  record  of  the  rise  and  fall  of 
despotic  dynasties,  of  the  incursions  of  barbarous  hordes,  and  of  the 
mental  and  political  prostration  of  millions  beneath  the  diadem, 
the  tiara,  and  the  sword. 

Great  as  the  preponderance  of  the  Persian  over  the  Athenian 
power  at  that  crisis  seems  to  have  been,  it  would  be  unjust  to  im- 
pute wild  rashness  to  the  policy  of  Miltiades  and  those  who  voted 
with  him  in  the  Athenian  council  of  war,  or  to  look  on  the  after- 
current of  events  as  the  mere  fortunate  result  of  successful  folly. 
As  before  has  been  remarked,  Miltiades,  while  prince  of  the  Cher- 
sonese, had  seen  service  in  the  Persian  armies ;  and  he  knew  by 
personal  observation  how  many  elements  of  weakness  lurked  be- 
neath their  imposing  aspect  of  strength.  He  knew  that  the  bulk 
of  their  troops  no  longer  consisted  of  the  hardy  shepherds  and 
mountaineers  from  Persia  proper  and  Kurdistan,  who  won  Cyrus's 
battles;  but  that  unwilling  contingents  from  conquered  nations 
now  filled  up  the  Persian  muster-rolls,  fighting  more  from  com- 
pulsion than  from  any  zeal  in  the  cause  of  their  masters.  He  had 
also  the  sagacity  and  the  spirit  to  appreciate  the  superiority  of  the 
Greek  armor  and  organization  over  the  Asiatic,  notwithstanding 
fonner  reverses.  Above  all,  he  felt  and  worthily  trusted  the  en- 
thusiasm of  those  whom  he  led. 

The  Athenians  whom  he  led  had  proved  by  their  new-bom  valor 
in  recent  wars  against  the  neighboring  states  that  ** liberty  and 
equality  of  civic  rights  are  brave  spirit-stirring  things,  and  they 


THE   BATTLE    OF   MARATHON  27 

who,  while  uuder  the  yoke  of  a  despot,  had  been  no  better  men  of 
war  than  any  of  their  neighbors,  as  soon  as  they  were  free  became 
the  foremost  men  of  all ;  for  each  felt  that,  in  fighting  fot  a  free 
commonwealth,  he  fought  for  himself,  and  whatever  he  took  in 
hand  he  was  zealous  to  do  the  work  thoroughly."  So  the  nearly 
contemporaneous  historian  describes  the  change  of  spirit  that  was 
seen  in  the  Athenians  after  their  tyrants  were  expelled ;  and  Mil- 
tiades  knew  that  in  leading  them  against  the  invading  army,  where 
they  had  Hippias,  the  foe  they  most  hated,  before  them,  he  was 
bringing  into  battle  no  ordinary  men,  and  could  calculate  on  no 
ordinary  heroism.  As  for  traitors,  he  was  sure  that,  whatever 
treachery  might  lurk  among  some  of  the  higher-bom  and  wealthier 
Athenians,  the  rank  and  file  whom  he  commanded  were  ready  to 
do  their  utmost  in  his  and  their  own  cause.  With  regard  to  future 
attacks  from  Asia,  he  might  reasonably  hope  that  one  victory  would 
inspirit  all  Greece  to  combine  against  the  common  foe ;  and  that 
the  latent  seeds  of  revolt  and  disunion  in  the  Persian  empire  would 
soon  burst  forth  and  paralyze  its  energies,  so  as  to  leave  Greek 
independence  secure. 

With  these  hopes  and  risks,  Miltiades,  on  the  afternoon  of  a 
September  day,  490  B.C.,  gave  the  word  for  the  Athenian  army 
to  prepare  for  battle.  There  were  many  local  associations  con- 
nected with  those  moimtain  heights  which  were  calculated  power- 
fully to  excite  the  spirits  of  the  men,  and  of  which  the  commanders 
well  knew  how  to  avail  themselves  in  their  exhortations  to  their 
troops  before  the  encounter.  Marathon  itself  was  a  region  sacred 
to  Hercules.  Close  to  them  was  the  fountain  of  Macaria,  who  had 
in  days  of  yore  devoted  herself  to  death  for  the  liberty  of  her  peo- 
ple. The  very  plain  on  which  they  were  to  fight  was  the  scene  of 
the  exploits  of  their  national  hero,  Theseus ;  and  there,  too,  as  old 
legends  told,  the  Athenians  and  the  Heraclidse  had  routed  the  in- 
vader, Eurystheus.  These  traditions  were  not  mere  cloudy  myths 
or  idle  fictions,  but  matters  of  implicit  earnest  faith  to  the  men  oi 
that  day,  and  many  a  fervent  prayer  arose  from  the  Athenian 
ranks  to  the  heroic  spirits  who,  while  on  earth,  had  striven  and 
suffered  on  that  very  spot,  and  who  were  beheved  to  be  now 
heftvenlv  powers,  looking  down  with  interest  on  their  still  be- 


28        GREAT  BATTLES  OF  ALL  NATIONS 

loved  country,  and  capable  of   interposing  with  superhuman  aid 
ill  its  behalf. 

According  to  old  national  custom,  the  warriors  of  each  tribe 
were  arrayed  together ;  neighbor  thus  fighting  by  the  side  of  neigh- 
bor, friend  by  friend,  and  the  spirit  of  emulation  and  the  conscious- 
ness of  responsibihty  excited  to  the  very  utmost.     The  War-ruler, 
Callimachus,  had  the  leading  of  the  right  wing;   the  Platseaus 
formed  the  extreme   left;    and   Themistocles   and  Aristides   com- 
manded the  center.     The  line  consisted  of  the  heavy  armed  spear- 
men only ;   for  the  Greeks  (until  the  time  of  Iphicrates)  took  little 
or  no  account  of  light-armed  soldiers  in  a  pitched  battle,  using 
them  only  in  skirmishes,  or  for  the  pursuit  of  a  defeated  enemy. 
The  panoply  of  the  regular  infantry  consisted  of  a  long  spear,  of 
a  shield,   helmet,    breast-plate,   greaves  and  short  sword.     Thus 
equipped,  they  usually  advanced  slowly  and  steadily  into  action 
in  a  uniform  phalanx  of  about  eight  spears  deep.     But  the  mihtaiy 
genius  of  Miltiades  led  him  to  deviate  on  this  occasion  from  the 
commonplace  tactics  of  his  countrymen.     It  was  essential  for  him 
to  extend  his  hne  so  as  to  cover  all  the  practicable  ground,  and  to 
secure  himself  from  being  outflanked  and  charged  in  the  rear  by 
the  Persian  horse.     This  extension  involved  the  weakening  of  his 
line.     Instead  of  a  uniform  reduction  of  its  strength,  he  determined 
on  detaching  principally  from  his  center,  which,  from  the  nature 
of  the  ground,  would  have  the  best  opportunities  for  rallying,  if 
broken ;  and  on  strengthening  his  wings  so  as  to  insure  advantage 
at  those  points ;  and  he  trusted  to  his  own  skill  and  to  his  soldiers' 
discipline  for  the  improvement  of  that   advantage  into   decisive 
victory. 

In  this  order,  and  availing  himseK  probably  of  the  inequahties 
of  the  ground,  so  as  to  conceal  his  preparations  from  the  enemy  till 
the  last  possible  moment,  Miltiades  drew  up  the  eleven  thousand 
infantry  whose  spears  were  to  decide  this  crisis  in  the  struggle  be- 
tween the  European  and  the  Asiatic  worlds.  The  sacrifices  by 
which  the  favor  of  heaven  was  sought  and  its  will  consulted  were 
announced  to  show  propitious  omens.  The  trumpet  sounded  for 
action,  and,  chanting  the  hymn  of  battle,  the  little  army  bore  down 
upon  the  host  of  tiie  foe.     Then,  too,  along  the  mountain  slopes  of 


THE   BATTLE    OF   MARATHON  29 

Marathon  must  have  resounded  the  mutual  exhortation,  which 
^^chylus,  who  fought  in  both  battles,  tells  us  was  afterward  heard 
over  the  waves  of  Salamis:  "On,  sons  of  the  Greeks!  Strike  for 
the  freedom  of  your  country !  strike  for  the  freedom  of  your  chil- 
dren and  of  your  wives — for  the  shrines  of  your  father's  gods,  and 
for  the  sepulchers  of  your  sires.  All — all  are  now  staked  upon  the 
strife." 

Instead  of  advancing  at  the  usual  slow  pace  of  the  phalanx, 
Miltiades  brought  his  men  on  at  a  run.  They  were  all  trained  in 
the  exercise  of  the  palaestra,  so  that  there  was  no  fear  of  their  end- 
ing the  charge  in  breathless  exhaustion ;  and  it  was  of  the  deepest 
importance  for  him  to  traverse  as  rapidly  as  possible  the  mile  or 
so  of  level  ground  that  lay  between  the  mountain  foot  and  the  Per- 
sian outposts,  and  so  to  get  his  troops  into  close  action  before  the 
Asiatic  cavalry  could  motmt,  form  and  maneuver  against  him,  or 
their  archers  keep  him  long  under  fire,  and  before  the  enemy's 
generals  could  fairly  deploy  their  masses. 

"When  the  Persians,"  says  Herodotus,  "saw  the  Athenians  run- 
ning down  on  them,  without  horse  or  bowmen,  and  scanty  in  num- 
bers, they  thought  them  a  set  of  madmen  rushing  upon  certain 
destruction."  They  began,  however,  to  prepare  to  receive  them, 
and  the  Eastern  chiefs  arrayed,  as  quickly  as  time  and  place  al- 
lowed, the  varied  races  who  served  in  their  motley  ranks.  Moun- 
taineers from  Hyrcania  and  Afghanistan,  wild  horsemen  from  the 
steppes  of  Khorassan,  the  black  archers  of  Ethiopia,  swordsmen 
from  the  banks  of  the  Indus,  the  Oxus,  the  Euphrates  and  the 
Nile,  made  ready  against  the  enemies  of  the  Great  King.  But  no 
national  cause  inspired  them  except  the  division  of  native  Persians ; 
and  in  the  large  host  there  was  no  uniformity  of  language,  creed, 
race  or  military  system.  StiU,  among  them  there  were  many  gal- 
lant men,  under  a  veteran  general;  they  were  familiarized  with 
victory,  and,  in  contemptuous  confidence,  their  infantry,  which 
alone  had  time  to  form,  awaited  the  Athenian  charge.  On  came 
the  Greeks,  with  one  imwavering  line  of  leveled  spears,  against 
which  the  light  targets,  the  short  lances  and  scimiters  of  the  Orien- 
tals offered  weak  defense.  The  front  rank  of  the  Asiatics  must 
have  gone  down  to  a  man  at  the  first  shock.     Still  they  recoiled 


30  GREAT  BATTLES   OF   ALL   NATIONS 

not,  but  strove  by  individual  gallantry  and  by  the  weight  of  num* 
bers  to  make  up  for  the  disadvantages  of  weapons  and  tactics,  and 
to  bear  back  the  shallow  line  of  the  Europeans.  In  the  center, 
where  the  native  Persians  and  the  Sacaj  fought,  they  succeeded  in 
breaking  through  the  weakened  part  of  the  Athenian  phalanx ;  and 
the  tribes  led  by  Aristides  and  Themistocles  were,  after  a  brave 
resistance,  driven  back  over  the  plain,  and  chased  by  the  Persians 
up  the  valley  toward  the  inner  country.  There  the  nature  of  the 
ground  gave  the  opportunity  of  rallying  and  renewing  the  strug- 
gle. Meanwhile,  the  Greek  wings,  where  Miltiades  had  concen- 
trated his  chief  strength,  had  routed  the  Asiatics  opposed  to  them; 
and  the  Athenian  and  Platsean  officers,  instead  of  pursuing  the 
fugitives,  kept  their  troops  well  in  hand,  and,  wheeling  round, 
they  formed  the  two  wings  together.  Miltiades  instantly  led  them 
against  the  Persian  center,  which  had  hitherto  been  triumphant, 
but  which  now  fell  back,  and  prepared  to  encounter  these  new  and 
unexpected  assailants.  Aristides  and  Themistocles  renewed  the 
fight  with  their  reorganized  troops,  and  the  full  force  of  the  Greeks 
was  brought  into  close  action  with  the  Persian  and  Sacian  divisions 
of  the  enemy.  Datis's  veterans  strove  hard  to  keep  their  groimd, 
and  evening  was  approaching  before  the  stem  encounter  was  de- 
cided. 

But  the  Persians,  with  their  shght  wicker  shields,  destitute  of 
body-armor,  and  never  taught  by  training  to  keep  the  even  front 
and  act  with  the  regular  movement  of  the  Greek  infantry,  fought 
at  heavy  disadvantage  with  their  shorter  and  feebler  weapons 
against  the  compact  array  of  well-armed  Athenian  and  Plataean 
spearmen,  all  perfectly  drilled  to  perform  each  necessary  evolution 
in  concert,  and  to  preserve  a  uniform  and  unwavering  line  in  bat- 
tle. In  personal  courage  and  in  bodily  activity  the  Persians  were 
not  inferior  to  their  adversaries.  Their  spirits  were  not  yet  cowed 
by  the  recollection  of  former  defeats;  and  they  lavished  their  lives 
freely,  rather  than  forfeit  the  fame  which  they  had  won  by  so 
many  victories.  While  their  rear  ranks  poured  an  incessant 
shower  of  arrows  over  the  heads  of  their  comrades,  the  foremost 
Persians  kept  rushing  forward,  sometimes  singly,  sometimes  in 
desperate  groups  of  tweJre  or  ten^  upon  the  projecting  spears  of 


THE   BATTLE   OF   MARATHON  31 

the  Greeks,  striving  to  force  a  lane  into  the  phalanx,  and  to  bring 
their  scimiters  and  daggers  into  play.  But  the  Greeks  felt  their 
superiority,  and  though  the  fatigue  of  the  long-continued  action 
told  heavily  on  their  inferior  numbers,  the  sight  of  the  carnage 
that  they  dealt  upon  their  assailants  nerved  them  to  fight  still  more 
fiercely  on. 

At  last  the  previously  unvanquished  lords  of  Asia  turned  their 
backs  and  fled,  and  the  Greeks  followed,  striking  them  down,  to 
the  water's  edge,  where  the  invaders  were  now  hastily  laimching 
their  galleys,  and  seeking  to  embark  and  fly.  Flushed  with  suc- 
cess, the  Athenians  attacked  and  strove  to  fire  the  fleet.  But  here 
the  Asiatics  resisted  desperately,  and  the  principal  loss  sustained 
by  the  Greeks  was  in  the  assault  on  the  ships.  Here  feU  the  brave 
War-ruler  Callimachus,  the  general  Stesilaus,  and  other  Athenians 
of  note.  Seven  gaUeys  were  fired ;  but  the  Persians  succeeded  in 
saving  the  rest.  They  pushed  off  from  the  fatal  shore;  but  even 
here  the  skill  of  Datis  did  not  desert  him,  and  he  sailed  round  to 
the  western  coast  of  Attica,  in  hopes  to  find  the  city  unprotected, 
and  to  gain  possession  of  it  from  some  of  the  partisans  of  Hippias. 
Miltiades,  however,  saw  and  counteracted  his  maneuver.  Leaving 
Aristides,  and  the  troops  of  his  tribe,  to  guard  the  spoil  and  the 
slain,  the  Athenian  commander  led  his  conquering  army  by  a  rapid 
night-march  back  across  the  country  to  Athens.  And  when  the 
Persian  fleet  had  doubled  the  Cape  of  Sunium  and  sailed  up  to  the 
Athenian  harbor  in  the  morning,  Datis  saw  arrayed  on  the  heights 
above  the  city  the  troops  before  whom  his  men  had  fled  on  the  pre- 
ceding evening.  AU  hope  of  further  conquest  in  Europe  for  the 
time  was  abandoned,  and  the  baffled  armada  returned  to  the  Asiatic 
coasts. 

After  the  battle  had  been  fought,  but  while  the  dead  bodies 
were  yet  on  the  ground,  the  promised  re-enforcement  from  Sparta 
arrived.  Two  thousand  Lacedaemonian  spearmen,  starting  imme- 
diately after  the  full  moon,  had  marched  the  hundred  and  fifty 
miles  between  Athens  and  Sparta  in  the  wonderfully  short  time  of 
three  days.  Though  too  late  to  share  in  the  glory  of  the  action, 
they  requested  to  be  allowed  to  march  to  the  battlefield  to  behold 
the  Medes.     They  proceeded  thither,  gazed  on  the  dead  bodies  of 


32  GREAT   BATTLES    OF    ALL    NATIONS 

the  invaders,  aud  then,  praising  the  Athenians  and  what  they  had 
done,  they  returned  to  Lacedsemon. 

The  number  of  the  Persian  dead  was  6,400;  of  the  Athenians, 
192.  The  number  of  the  Platseans  who  fell  is  not  mentioned;  but, 
as  they  fought  in  the  part  of  the  army  which  was  not  broken,  it 
cannot  have  been  large. 

The  apparent  disproportion  between  the  losses  of  the  two  armies 
is  not  surprising  when  we  remember  the  armor  of  the  Greek  spear- 
men, and  the  impossibility  of  heavy  slaughter  being  inflicted  by 
sword  or  lance  on  troops  so  armed,  as  long  as  they  kept  firm  in 
their  ranks. 

The  Athenian  slain  were  buried  on  the  field  of  battle.  This 
was  contrary  to  the  usual  custom,  according  to  which  the  bones  of 
all  who  fell  fighting  for  their  country  in  each  year  were  deposited 
in  a  pubhc  sepulcher  in  the  suburb  of  Athens  called  the  Ceramei- 
cus.  But  it  was  felt  that  a  distinction  ought  to  be  made  in  the 
fimeral  honors  paid  to  the  men  of  Marathon,  even  as  their  merit 
had  been  distinguished  over  that  of  all  other  Athenians.  A  lofty 
mound  was  raised  on  the  plain  of  Marathon,  beneath  which  the 
remains  of  the  men  of  Athens  who  fell  in  the  battle  were  deposited. 
Ten  columns  were  erected  on  the  spot,  one  for  each  of  the  Athe- 
nian tribes;  and  on  the  monumental  column  of  each  tribe  were 
graven  the  names  of  those  of  its  members  whose  glory  it  was  to 
have  fallen  in  the  great  battle  of  liberation.  The  antiquarian 
Pausanias  read  those  names  there  six  hundred  years  after  the  time 
when  they  were  first  graven.  The  columns  have  long  perished, 
but  the  mound  still  marks  the  spot  where  the  noblest  heroes  of 
antiquity  repose. 

A  separate  tumulus  was  raised  over  the  bodies  of  the  slain 
Plataeans,  and  another  over  the  light-armed  slaves  who  had  taken 
part  and  had  fallen  in  the  battle.  There  was  also  a  separate  fu- 
neral monument  to  the  general  to  whose  genius  the  victory  was 
mainly  due.  Miltiades  did  not  live  long  after  his  achievement  at 
Marathon,  but  he  lived  long  enough  to  experience  a  lamentable 
reverse  of  his  popularity  and  success.  As  soon  as  the  Persians  had 
quitted  the  western  coasts  of  the  JEgean,  he  proposed  to  an  assem- 
bly of  the  Athenian  people  that  they  should  fit  out  seventy  galleys, 


THE   BATTLE    OF    MARATHON  33 

with  a  proportionate  force  of  soldiers  and  military  stores,  and  place 
it  at  his  disposal;  not  telhng  them  whither  he  meant  to  lead  it,  but 
promising  them  that  if  they  would  equip  the  force  he  asked  for, 
and  g-ive  him  discretionary  powers,  he  would  lead  it  to  a  land  where 
there^was  gold  in  abundance  to  be  won  with  ease.     The  Greeks  of 
that  time  beheved  in  the  existence  of  Eastern  realms  teeming  with 
gold,  as  firmly  as  the  Europeans  of  the  sixteenth  century  believed 
in  El  Dorado  of  the  West.     The  Athenians  probably  thought  that 
the  recent  victor  of  Marathon,  and  former  officer  of  Darius,  was 
about  to  lead  them  on  a  secret  expedition  against  some  wealthy 
and  unprotected  cities  of  treasure  in  the  Persian  dominions.     The 
armament  was  voted  and  equipped,  and  sailed  eastward  from  At- 
tica, no  one  but  Miltiades  knowing  its  destination  until  the  Greek 
isle  of  Paros  was  reached,  when  his  true  object  appeared.     In  for- 
mer years,  while  connected  with  the  Persians  as  prince  of  the  Cher- 
sonese, Miltiades  had  been  involved  in  a  quarrel  vnth  one  of  the 
leading  men  among  the  Parians,  who  had  injured  his  credit  and 
caused  some  shghts  to  be  put  upon  him  at  the  court  of  the  Persian 
satrap  Hydarnes.     The  feud  had  ever  since  rankled  in  the  heart 
of  the  Athenian  chief,  and  he  now  attacked  Paros  for  the  sake  of 
avenging  himself  on  his  ancient  enemy.     His  pretext,  as  general 
of  the  Athenians,  was,  that  the  Parians  had  aided  the  armament 
of  Datis  with  a  war-galley.     The  Parians  pretended  to  treat  about 
terms  of  surrender,  but  used  the  time  which  they  thus  gained  in 
repairing  the  defective  parts  of  the  fortifications  of  their  city,  and 
they  then  set  the  Athenians  at  defiance.     So  far,  says  Herodotus, 
the  accounts  of  all  the  Greeks  agree.    But  the  Parians  in  after  years 
told  also  a  wild  legend,  how  a  captive  priestess  of  a  Parian  temple 
of  the  Deities  of  the  Earth  promised  Miltiades  to  give  him  the 
means  of  capturing  Paros;  how,  at  her  bidding,  the  Athenian  gen- 
eral went  alone  at  night  and  forced  his  way  into  a  holy  shrine, 
near  the  city  gate,  but  with  what  purpose  it  was  not  known;  how 
a  supernatural  awe  came  over  him,  and  in  his  flight  he  feU  and 
fractured  his  leg;  how  an  oracle  afterward  forbade  the  Parians  to 
punish  the  sacrilegious  and  traitorous  priestess,  "because  it  was 
fated  that  Miltiades  should  come  to  an  iU  end,  and  she  was  only 
the  instrument  to  lead  him  to  e^'il."     Such  was  the  tale  that  B.^ 
B— Vol.  I. 


34  GREAT   BATTLES    OF  ALL   NATIONS 

rodotus  heard  at  Paros.  Certain  it  was  that  Miltiades  either  dislo- 
cated or  broke  his  leg  during  an  unsuccessful  siege  of  the  city,  and 
returned  home  in  e\al  plight  with  his  baffled  and  defeated  forces. 

The  indignation  of  the  Athenians  was  proportionate  to  the  hope 
and  excitement  which  his  promises  had  raised,  Xanthippas,  the 
head  of  one  of  the  first  families  in  Athens,  indicted  him  before  the 
supreme  popular  tribunal  for  the  capital  offense  of  having  deceived 
the  people.  His  guilt  was  undeniable,  and  the  Athenians  passed 
their  verdict  accordingly.  But  the  recollections  of  Lemnos  and 
Marathon,  and  the  sight  of  the  fallen  general,  who  lay  stretched 
on  a  couch  before  them,  pleaded  successfully  in  mitigation  of  pun- 
ishment, and  the  sentence  was  commuted  from  death  to  a  fine  of 
fifty  talents.  This  was  paid  by  his  son,  the  afterward  illustrious 
Cimon,  Miltiades  djong,  soon  after  the  trial,  of  the  injury  which 
he  had  received  at  Paros. 

The  melancholy  end  of  Miltiades,  after  his  elevation  to  such 
a  height  of  power  and  glory,  must  often  have  been  recalled  to  the 
minds  of  the  ancient  Greeks  by  the  sight  of  one  in  particular  of 
the  memorials  of  the  great  battle  which  he  won.  This  was  the 
remarkable  statue  (minutely  described  by  Pausanias)  which  the 
Athenians,  in  the  time  of  Pericles,  caused  to  be  hewn  out  of  a  huge 
block  of  marble,  which,  it  was  beHeved,  had  been  provided  by 
Datis,  to  form  a  trophy  of  the  anticipated  victory  of  the  Persians. 
Phidias  fashioned  out  of  this  a  colossal  image  of  the  goddess  Nem- 
esis, the  deity  whose  peculiar  function  was  to  visit  the  exuberant 
prosperity  both  of  nations  and  individuals  with  sudden  and  awful 
reverses.  This  statue  was  placed  in  a  temple  of  the  goddess  at 
Rhamnus,  about  eight  miles  from  Marathon.  Athens  itself  con- 
tained numerous  memorials  of  her  primary  great  victory.  Pane- 
nus,  the  cousin  of  Phidias,  represented  it  in  fresco  on  the  walls  of 
the  painted  porch;  and,  centuries  afterward,  the  figures  of  Mil- 
tiades and  Callimachus  at  the  head  of  the  Athenians  were  con- 
spicuous in  the  fresco.  The  tutelary  deities  were  exhibited  taking 
part  in  the  fray.  In  the  background  were  seen  the  Phoenician  gal- 
leys, and,  nearer  to  the  spectator,  the  Athenians  and  the  Plataeans 
(distinguished  by  their  leather  helmets)  were  chasing  routed  Asi- 
atics into  the  marshes  and  the  sea.     The  battle  was  sculptured  also 


THE   BATTLE    OF    MARATHON  35 

on  the  Temple  of  Victory  in  the  Acropohs,  and  even  now  there 
may  be  traced  on  the  frieze  the  figures  of  the  Persian  combatants 
with  their  lunar  shields,  their  bows  and  quivers,  their  curved  scimi- 
ters,  their  loose  trousers  and  Phrygian  tiaras. 

These  and  other  memorials  of  Marathon  were  the  produce  of 
the  meridian  age  of  Athenian  intellectual  splendor,  of  the  age  of 
Phidias  and  Pericles;  for  it  was  not  merely  by  the  generation 
whom  the  battle  hberated  from  Hippias  and  the  Medes  that  the 
transcendent  importance  of  their  victory  was  gratefully  recog- 
nized. Through  the  whole  epoch  of  her  prosperity,  through  the 
long  Olympiads  of  her  decay,  through  centuries  after  her  fall, 
Athens  looked  back  on  the  day  of  Marathon  as  the  brightest  of 
her  national  existence. 

By  a  natural  blending  of  patriotic  pride  with  grateful  piety,  the 
very  spirits  of  the  Athenians  who  fell  at  Marathon  were  deified  by 
their  countrymen.  The  inhabitants  of  the  district  of  Marathon 
paid  rehgious  rites  to  them,  and  orators  solemnly  invoked  them  in 
their  most  impassioned  adjurations  before  the  assembled  men  of 
Athens.  "Nothing  was  omitted  that  could  keep  ahve  the  remem- 
brance of  a  deed  which  had  first  taught  the  Athenian  people  to 
know  its  own  strength,  by  measuring  it  with  the  power  which  had 
subdued  the  greater  part  of  the  known  world.  The  consciousness 
thus  awakened  fixed  its  character,  its  station,  and  its  destiny;  it 
was  the  spring  of  its  later  great  actions  and  ambitious  enterprises. ' ' 

It  was  not  indeed  by  one  defeat,  however  signal,  that  the  pride 
of  Persia  could  be  broken,  and  her  dreams  of  universal  empire  dis- 
pelled. Ten  years  afterward  she  renewed  her  attempts  upon  Eu- 
rope on  a  grander  scale  of  enterprise,  and  was  repulsed  by  Greece 
with  greater  and  reiterated  loss.  Larger  forces  and  heavier  slaugh- 
ter than  had  been  seen  at  Marathon  signalized  the  conflicts  of 
Greeks  and  Persians  at  Artemisium,  Salamis,  Platsea,  and  the 
Eurymedon.  But,  mighty  and  momentous  as  these  battles  were, 
they  rank  not  with  Marathon  in  importance.  They  originated  no 
new  impulse.  They  turned  back  no  current  of  fate.  They  were 
merely  confirmatory  of  the  already  existing  bias  which  Marathon 
had  created.  The  day  of  Marathon  is  the  critical  epoch  in  the 
history  of  the  two  nations.     It  broke  forever  the  spell  of  Persian 


36  GREAT    BATTLES    OF   ALL   NATIONS 

invincibility,  which  had  previously  paralyzed  men's  minds.  It 
generated  among  the  Greeks  the  spirit  which  beat  back  Xerxes, 
and  afterward  led  on  Xenophon,  Agesilaus,  and  Alexander,  in  ter- 
rible retahation,  through  then*  Asiatic  campaigns.  It  secured  for 
mankind  the  intellectual  treasures  of  Athens,  the  growth  of  free 
institutions,  the  liberal  enlightemnent  of  the  Western  world,  and 
the  gradual  ascendenc}-  for  many  ages  of  the  great  principles  of 
European  civilization. 


CHAPTER    II 
THE    BATTLE    OF   SALAMIS 

LEONIDAS  AT  THERMOPYL^— XERXES"   INVASION  AND  FLIGHT 

480  B.C. 

THE  disaster  at  Marathon,  Xerxes,  the  son  of  Darius,  deter- 
mined to  retrieve.  It  was  his  design  to  overwhelm  the 
Greeks  by  vast  masses  poured  into  their  country  by  land, 
while  a  fleet  much  larger  than  the  former  one  should  support 
them  by  sea.  When  at  last  the  great  force  set  out  it  was  like  a 
stream  gathering  impetus  with  progression.  After  passing  from 
Asia  into  Europe,  Doriskos  was  reached.  Here  on  a  Avide  plain 
Xerxes  numbered  his  army  bj'  bringing  a  myriad  of  men  into  the 
smallest  possible  space  and  round  this  raising  an  inclosure  into 
which  other  myriads  were  successively  brought,  until  the  infantry 
alone  were  found  to  number  one  million  seven  hundred  thousand 
men.  In  such  vast  round  numbers  has  the  tradition  of  this  mightj- 
armament  come  down  to  us.  We  should  have  scarcely  more  rea- 
son to  wonder  if  we  were  told  that  it  numbered  seventeen  million ; 
but  it  is  at  first  sight  surprising  to  be  told  that  the  number  of  the 
Persian  ships  was  not  five  hundred  or  one  hundred,  but  one  thou- 
sand two  hundred  and  seven.  We  find  the  enumeration,  however, 
not  only  in  Herodotus,  but  in  the  great  drama  of  the  Persians  by 


THE    BATTLE    OF   SALAMIS  37 

^schylus ;  and  tke  familiarity  of  Herodotus  with  that  drama  will 
probably  be  not  generally  questioned.  But  there  is  little  doubt  or 
iioue  that  -i^schylus  believed  or  asserted  the  number  of  the  Persian 
ships  to  be  not  one  thousand  two  hundred  and  seven,  but  precisely, 
as  we  should  expect,  one  thousand.  He  adds  indeed  that  the  num- 
ber of  ships  noted  for  swift  sailing  amounted  to  two  hundred  and 
seven ;  but  he  certainly  does  not  say  that  these  two  hundred  and 
seven  were  to  be  added  to  the  grand  total  of  one  thousand.  Even 
thus,  however,  the  simple  enumeration  of  the  total  by  ^schylus 
stands  on  a  very  different  footing  from  the  list  of  factors  which  in 
Herodotus  are  made  to  yield  the  same  result.  AVith  the  exception 
of  the  seventeen  ships  which  the  JE^gean  islanders  are  said  to  have 
contributed,  not  a  single  uneven  number  is  to  be  found  among 
them.  The  Phoenicians  furnish  three  hundred,  the  Egyptians  two 
hundred,  the  Cilicians  one  hundred,  the  cities  along  the  shores  of 
the  Euxine  one  hundred,  the  Pamphylians  thirty,  the  Lycians 
fifty,  the  Cyprians  one  hundred  and  fifty,  the  Carians  seventy. 
But  if  the  grand  total,  as  given  by  ^schylus,  was  well  known  to 
Athenians  generally,  there  is  nothing  to  surprise  us  in  the  fact  that 
some  one  who  misunderstood  the  lines  in  which  he  sums  up  the 
numbers  made  out  the  several  factors  which  were  to  yield  the  de- 
sired result,  and  that  Herodotus  accepted  these  factors  as  histor- 
ical. It  is,  however,  quite  possible  that  a  spurious  or  forged  list 
may  contain  factors  which  are  accurately  given ;  nor  need  we  hesi- 
tate to  say  that  the  contingents  of  the  Persian  fleet  which  w^ould 
be  best  known  to  the  Western  Greeks  would  be  those  of  their  Asi- 
atic kinsfolk,  together  with  the  ships  furnished  by  the  islanders. 
The  greatest  stress  must  therefore  be  laid  on  the  fact  that  the 
number  of  ships  supplied  by  these  Eastern  Greeks,  together  with 
the  islanders,  amounts  to  precisely  the  two  hundred  and  seven 
which  JEschylus  gives  as  the  number  of  fast-sailing  ships  in  the 
service  of  Xerxes — the  lonians  contributing  one  hundred  ships, 
the  Eolians  sixtj^,  the  Dorians  thirty,  the  islanders  seventeen. 
These  ships  would  probably  be  the  only  vessels  of  which  -<Eschylus 
would  even  pretend  to  have  any  personal  knowledge ;  and  his  state- 
ment seems  to  lead  us  to  the  conclusion  that  this  historical  factor 
was  merged  in  the  artificial  total  of  one  thousand,  while  a  certain 


38  GREAT   BATTLES   OF   ALL   NATIONS 

Hellenic  pride  may  be  traced  in  the  implied  fact  that  the  Greek 
ships  in  the  Persian  fleet  far  surpassed  in  swiftness  the  vessels  even 
of  the  Phcenicians.  But  although  in  these  tv^o  hundred  and  seven 
ships  we  have  a  number  undoubtedly  historical,*  it  is  most  remark- 
able that  the  one  thousand  vessels  of  which  they  formed  a  part 
make  up  in  the  drama  of  -<^schylus  the  Persian  fleet  which  fought 
at  Salamis,  whereas,  according  to  Herodotus,  this  was  the  number 
which  Xerxes  reviewed  with  his  land  forces  at  Doriskos.  In  the 
interval  the  Persians,  as  Herodotus  affirms,  lost  six  hundred  and 
forty-seven  ships,  and  gained  only  one  hundred  and  twenty;  and 
thus  we  see  that  the  grand  total  in  either  case  was  suggested  by 
Eastern  ideas  of  completeness.  When,  then,  we  are  informed  that 
Xerxes  led  as  far  as  Thermopylae  five  milUon  two  hundred  and 
eighty  thousand  men,  besides  a  vast  throng  of  women,  we  take 
the  statement  simply  as  evidence  that  the  Persian  host  left  every- 
where by  its  size  an  impression  of  irresistible  force.  The  great  his- 
torian Thucydides  confesses  that  he  could  not  learn  the  exact  num- 
ber of  the  few  thousand  men  engaged  in  the  battle  of  Mantinia,  of 
which  he  was  probably  himself  an  eye-witness :  it  would  be  strange 
indeed,  therefore,  if  we  had  a  trustworthy  census  of  the  Persian 
hordes  at  Doriskos. 

But,  in  truth,  Herodotus,  although  convinced  that  in  speaking 
of  these  millions  he  was  speaking  of  a  historical  fact,  had  an  ob- 
ject in  view  of  a  higher  and  more  solemn  kind,  which  he  sets  forth 
in  a  singularly  characteristic  narrative.  When,  after  the  great 
review,  Xerxes  sent  for  Demaratus  and  asked  him  if  he  thought 
that  the  Greeks  would  dare  to  resist  him,  the  Spartan  exile  replied 
by  asking  whether  the  king  wished  to  hear  pleasant  things  or  only 
the  truth.  Receiving  a  pledge  that  no  harm  should  befall  him, 
he  went  on  to  tell  him  that  the  Greeks  owed  the  courage  by  which 
they  kept  off  both  povertj^  and  tyranny  to  their  wisdom  and  to 
strength  of  law,  and  that,  even  if  no  count  were  taken  of  the  rest, 
the  Spartans  would  fight  him  to  the  last,  even  though  they  might 
not  be  able  to  muster  a  thousand  men.  "AVhat?"  said  Xerxes 
laughing,  "will  a  thousand  men  fight  my  great  army?  Tell  me 
now,  thou  wast  once  their  king,  wilt  thou  fight  straightway  with 
ten  men?    Come,  let  us  reason  upon  it.     How  could  a  myriad,  or 


THE   BATTLE   OF   SALAMIS  39 

five  myriads,  who  are  all  free,  and  not  ruled  by  one  man,  with- 
stand so  great  a  host?    Being  driven  by  the  scourge  they  might 
perhaps  go  against  a  multitude  larger  than  their  own ;  but  now, 
left  to  their  freedom,  they  will  do  none  of   these  things.     Nay, 
even  if  their  numbers  were  equal  to  ours,  I  doubt  if  they  could 
withstand  us,  for  among  my  spearbearers  are  some  who  will  fight 
three  Greeks  at  once ;  thus  in  thine  ignorance  thou  speakest  fool- 
ishly."     In  plainspoken  and  simple  style  Demaratus  expressed  his 
consciousness  that  the  truth  was  not  Ukely  to  be  palatable,  and 
reminded  him  how  little  he  was  Ukely  to  exaggerate  the  virtues  of 
men  who  had  robbed  him  of  his  honors  and  dignity,  and  driven 
liim  to  a  strange  land.     "I  say  not  indeed  that  I  am  able  to  fight 
with  ten  men  or  with  two,  nor  of  my  own  will  would  I  fight  with 
one.     So,  too,  the  Spartans  one  by  one  are  much  like  other  men; 
but  taken  together  they  are  the  strongest  of  all  men,  for,  though 
they  are  free,  they  are  not  without  a  lord.     Law  is  their  master, 
whom  they  fear  much  more  than  thy  people  fear  thee.     Whatever 
law  commands,  that  they  do ;   and  it  commands  always  the  same 
thing,  charging  them  never  to  fly  from  any  enemy,  but  to  remain 
in  their  ranks  and  to  conquer  or  die."     The  value  of  this  conver- 
sation lies  wholly  in  the  truth  of  the  lesson  which  it  teaches ;   and 
this  lesson  enforces  the  contrast  between  the  principle  of  fear  and 
the  principle  of  voluntary  obedience.     It  is  profoundly  true  that 
brute  force  driven  by  the  lash  cannot  be  trusted  in  a  conflict  with 
minds  moved  by  a  deep  moral  impulse.     The  tyranny  of  few  men 
has  equaled  that   of  Napoleon   Bonaparte;   but   Bonaparte   knew 
perfectly  well  that  mere  numbers  and  weapons  were  of  little  use, 
unless  his  soldiers  could  be  stirred  by  a  fierce  enthusiasm.     Not  a 
little  of  his^power  lay  in  his  ingenious  use  of  claptrap  to  stir  up  this 
enthusiasm ;  and  the  point  of  the  conversation  between  Xerxes  and 
Demaratus  is  that  to  such  a  height  even  as  this — the  standard  of 
mere  deception — it  was  impossible  for  a  Persian  despot  to  rise. 
Nay,  Cyrus,  if  not  Darius,  might  have  reminded  Xerxes  that  the 
foundations  of  the  Persian  empire  were  not  laid  by  men  driven  to 
battle  by  the  scourge.     He  was  making  the  confusion  which  East- 
ern kings  are  apt  to  make,  between  the  force  of  hardy  warriors 
urged  on  by  the  impulse  of  conquest,  and  the  force  of  multitudes. 


40  GREAT   BATTLES    OF    ALL   NATIONS 

whose  object  is  to  do  as  little  work,  and  to  do  it  as  badly,  as 
they  can. 

Of  the  land  march  of  the  Persians  from  Doriskos  it  is  almost 
enough  to  say  that  the  armyjpassed  through  the  several  places 
which  lay  natural!}-  in  its  path.  With  little  annoyance,  except 
from  some  clans  of  Thracian  mountaineers,  it  reached  the  cit}'  of 
Eion,  on  the  Strymon,  then  governed  by  the  Persian  Boges  whom 
Megabazos  had  probably  left  in  charge  of  it.  The  Strymon  was 
bridged  over  for  their  passage ;  but  Xerxes  could  not  leave  the  spot 
called  Ennea  Hodoi  (the  Nine  Roads),  the  site  of  the  future  Am- 
phipolis,  without  burying  alive  for  luck's  sake  nine  boys  and  nine 
girls  taken  from  the  people  of  the  country.  At  length,  after  jour- 
neying on  through  the  lands  watered  by  the  Echedorus,  the  army 
halted  on  the  ground  stretching  from  Therme  to  the  banks  of  the 
Haliacmon.  From  Therme,  as  he  looked  westward  and  south- 
ward, the  eyes  of  Xerxes  rested  on  that  magnificent  chain  of 
HKAuitains  which  rises  to  a  head  in  the  crests  of  Olympus  and  Ossa, 
and,  leaving  between  these  two  hills  the  defile  through  which  the 
Penius  flows  out  into  the  sea,  stretches  under  the  name  of  Pelion 
along  the  coast  which  was  soon  to  make  him  feel  the  wrath  of  the 
invisible  gods.  Here,  gazing  in  wonder  at  the  mighty  walls  of 
rock  which  rose  on  either  side,  he  is  said  to  have  asked  whether  it 
were  possible  to  treat  the  Penius  as  Cyrus  had  treated  the  Gyndes. 
Among  the  tribes  who  stooped  to  give  him  earth  and  water,  the 
Aleuad  chieftains  of  Thessaly  had  been  the  most  prominent  and 
zealous.  From  these  the  question  of  Xerxes  drew  out  the  fact  that 
they  lived  in  a  mere  basin  where  the  stoppage  of  the  one  outlet  of 
its  streams  would  make  the  whole  land  sea,  and  destroy  every  soul 
within  its  mountain  barriers.  Xerxes  was  not  slow,  we  are  told, 
in  appreciating  the  true  meaning  of  Thessalian  ardor.  People  who 
live  in  a  country  which  can  be  taken  without  trouble  do  wisel}^  he 
said,  in  allying  themselves  betimes  with  the  invader. 

Returning  from  the  pass  of  Tempe,  Xerxes  was  obliged  to  re- 
main for  some  time  at  Therme,  while  his  pioneers  were  cutting  a 
path  across  the  densely  wooded  hills ;  and  from  Therme,  eleven 
days  after  his  own  departure  with  the  land  army  for  Gonnos,  the 
fleet  sailed  in  a  single  day  to  the  Magnesian  coast  under  Pelion, 


THE   BATTLE    OF   SALAMIS  41 

there  to  feel  in  a  few  hours  the  wrath  of  the  wind-god  Boreas. 
Thus  far  the  enterprise  had  been  carried  on,  it  is  said,  with  un- 
broken good  fortune ;  but  we  shall  see  presently  in  the  narrative 
of  his  retreat  signs  which  seem  to  show  that  the  statement  is,  to 
say  the  least,  questionable. 

In  AVestern  Greece  the  course  of  events  had  been  for  some  time 
determining  the  parts  which  Athens  and  Sparta  were  severally  to 
play  in  the  coming  struggle.  The  long  and  uninteresting  feud  or 
war  between  Athens  and  Egina  had  at  least  one  good  result  in 
fixing  the  attention  of  the  Athenians  rather  on  their  fleet  than  on 
their  army.  The  quarrel  was  concerned  with  the  old  strife  be- 
tween the  oligarchic  nobles  and  the  Demos  or  people,  of  whom 
nearly  seven  hundred  were  murdered  by  the  former,  who  in  their 
turn  were  defeated  by  an  Athenian  force.  By  sea  the  Eginetan 
oligarchs  were  more  fortunate.  The  Athenian  fleet,  being  sur- 
prised in  a  state  of  disorder,  lost  four  ships  with  their  crews.  This 
rebuff  could  not  fail  to  bring  home  to  the  Athenians  the  lesson 
which,  from  the  very  beginning  of  his  career,  Themistocles  had 
been  straining  every  nerve  to  teach  them.  The  change  of  policy 
on  which,  in  order  to  develop  the  Athenian  navy,  he  was  led  to 
insist,  imbittered  the  antagonism  which  had  already  placed  a  gulf 
between  himself  and  Aristides;  and  the  political  opposition  of 
these  two  men  involved  so  much  danger  to  the  state  that  Aris- 
tides himself,  it  is  said,  confessed  that,  if  the  Athenians  were 
wnse,  they  would  put  an  end  to  their  rivalry  by  throwing  both  into 
the  Barathron.  The  Demos,  so  far  taking  the  same  view,  sent  him 
into  exile  by  a  vote  of  ostracism.  This  vote  affirmed  the  adoption 
of  the  new  policy  in  preference  to  the  old  conservative  theory  which 
regarded  the  navy  as  the  seed-bed  of  novelty  and  change;  and 
Themistocles  would  not  fail  to  strengthen  this  resolution  by  dwell- 
ing on  the  certainty  of  a  fresh  effort  on  the  part  of  the  Persian  king 
to  carry  out  the  design  on  which,  as  they  knew,  his  father  Darius 
had  set  his  heart,  and  by  assuring  them  not  only  that  the  power 
of  the  Persian  empire  was  to  be  directed  chiefly  against  themselves, 
but  that  it  was  as  necessary  to  be  prepared  against  the  formidable 
Phoenician  fleet  as  against  an}-  armies  which  might  assail  them  by 
land.     It  was  a  happy  thing  both  for  Themistocles  and  for  Athens 


42  GREAT   BATTLES   OF   ALL   NATIONS 

that  the  proposed  expedition  of  Darius  was  delayed  first  by  the 
revolt  of  Egypt,  then  by  his  death,  and  lastly  by  the  long  time 
which  Xerxes  allowed  to  pass  before  he  left  Sousa.  Meanwhile 
the  internal  resources  of  Athens  were  being  enormously  increased 
by  the  proceeds  of  the  silver  mines  of  Laurion.  During  the  mili- 
tary despotism  of  the  Pisistratidse  the  wealth  of  these  mines  had 
been  used  scantily  or  not  at  all ;  but  the  impulse  given  to  enterprise 
by  the  constitutional  reforms  of  Clisthenes  had  already  been  re- 
warded by  a  harvest  of  silver  suflficient  to  furnish  ten  drachmas  for 
every  Athenian  citizen.  This  petty  personal  profit  Themistocles 
induced  them  to  forego;  and  by  his  advice  this  sum  of  perhaps 
three  hundred  thousand  drachmas  was  devoted  to  the  building  of 
two  hundred  ships  to  be  employed  nominally  in  that  war  with 
Egina  which,  in  the  forcible  words  of  Herodotus,  was  nothing 
less  than  the  salvation  of  Greece. 

It  can  scarcely  be  said  that  the  patriotic  resolution  of  the  Athe- 
nians was  shared  by  the  other  Greek  states.  Some  among  them, 
it  is  true,  began  to  see  that  they  were  not  acting  wisely  by  wasting 
their  years  in  perpetual  warfare  or  feud ;  and  in  a  congress  held 
at  the  Isthmus  of  Corinth  they  admitted  the  paramount  need  of 
making  up  existing  quarrels  in  presence  of  a  common  danger.  But 
although  the  men  of  Egina  were  thus  constrained  to  lay  aside  for 
a  time  their  quarrel  with  the  Athenians,  the  Hellenic  character 
was  not  changed.  Of  all  the  Greek  cities  the  greater  number  were 
taking  the  part  of  the  Persians,  or,  as  it  was  phrased,  Medizing, 
while  those  who  refused  to  submit  dreaded  the  very  thought  of  a 
conflict  with  the  Phoenician  fleet.  In  this  season  of  supreme  de- 
pression the  great  impulse  to  hope  and  vigorous  action  came  from 
Athens.  It  is  the  emphatic  judgment  of  Herodotus  that  if  the 
Athenians  had  Medized  it  would  have  been  impossible  to  withstand 
the  king  by  sea,  while  the  Spartans  would  have  been  left  to  carrj^ 
on  an  unavailing  contest  by  land.  Hence  the  Athenians  are  with 
him  pre-eminently  the  saviors  of  Hellas ;  and  his  assertion  has  all 
the  more  value,  because  he  declares  that  it  was  forced  from  him 
by  a  strong  con-viction  of  its  truth,  although  he  knew  that  in  many 
quarters  it  would  give  great  offense. 

For  the  present  the  general  aspect  of  things  was  gloomy  enough. 


THE   BATTLE   OF   SALAMIS  43 

The  three  men  sent  by  the  congress  at  Corinth  to  spy  out  the  army 
of  Xerxes  at  Sardis  had  returned  with  a  report  which  we  might 
suppose  would  be  superfluous.  All  Asia,  it  is  said,  had  for  years 
resounded  vnth  the  din  of  preparation;  and  the  inhabitants  of  the 
Greek  towns  along  the  line  of  march  could  furnish  accurate  ac- 
counts of  the  quantities  of  corn  laid  up  in  their  magazines.  The 
three  spies  were  caught,  but  Xerxes  had  them  led  round  his  camp 
and  sent  away  unhurt ;  and  their  story  came  in  to  heighten  the 
superstitious  terrors  inspired  by  signs  and  omens  of  approaching 
disaster.  On  entering  the  shrine  at  Delphi,  the  Athenian  messen- 
gers were  greeted  with  a  pitiless  response. 

O  wretched  people,  why  sit  ye  still?  Leave  your  homes  and  your 
strongholds,  and  flee  away. 

Head  and  body,  feet  and  hands,  nothing  is  sound,  but  all  is 
wretched ;  •  -n 

For  fire  and  war,  hastening  hither  on  a  Syrian  chanot,  wiU  pres- 
ently make  it  low. 

Other  strong  places  shall  they  destroy,  not  yours  only, 

And  many  temples  of  the  undying  gods  shall  they  give  to  the  flame. 

Down  their  walls  the  big  drops  are  streaming,  as  they  tremble  for 

fear;  r     j.i         -t 

But  go  ye  from  my  holy  place,  and  brace  up  your  hearts  for  the  evil. 

Dismayed  by  these  fearful  warnings,  the  messengers  received  a 
glimmer  of  comfort  from  a  Delphian,  who  bade  them  take  olive- 
branches  and  try  the  god  once  more.  To  their  prayer  for  a  more 
merciful  answer  they  added  that,  if  it  were  not  given,  they  would 
stay  there  till  they  died.  Their  entreaty  was  rewarded  with  these 
mysterious  utterances : 

Pallas  cannot  prevail  with  Zeus  who  lives  on  Olympus,  though  she 

has  besought  him  with  many  prayers, 
And  his  word  which  I  now  tell -you  is  flrmly  fixed  as  a  rock. 
For  thus  saith  Zeus  that,  when  all  else  within  the  land  of  Cecrops 

is  wasted,  the  wooden  wall  alone  shall  not  be  taken ;  and  this 

shall  help  you  and  your  children. 
But  wait  not  until  the  horsemen  come  and  the  footmen ;  turn  your 

backs  upon  them  now,  and  one  day  ye  shall  meet  them. 
And  thou,   di^nne  Salamis,  shalt  destroy  those  that  are  born  ot 

women,  when  the  seed-time  comes  or  the  harvest. 

These  words  the  messengers  on  their  return  to  Athens  read  before 
the  people.     The  very  ease  with  which  they  were  made  to  coincide 


44  GREAT    BATTLES    OF    ALL    NATIONS 

with  the  pohcy  of  Themistocles  points  to  the  influence  which  called 
them  forth.  The  mind  of  the  great  statesman  had  been  long  made 
up  that  Athens  should  become  a  maritime  power ;  and  his  whole 
career  supplies  evidence  that  he  would  adopt  ^vithout  scruple  what- 
ever measures  might  be  needed  to  carry  out  his  purpose.  Thus, 
when  the  answer  was  read  out,  he  could  at  once  come  forward  and 
say,  "Athenians,  the  soothsayers,  who  bid  you  leave  your  country 
and  seek  another  elsewhere,  are  wrong;  and  so  are  the  old  men 
who  bid  you  stay  at  home  and  guard  the  Acropolis,  as  though  the 
god  were  speaking  of  this  when  he  speaks  of  the  wooden  wall,  be- 
cause long  ago  there  was  a  thorn  hedge  around  it.  This  will  not 
help  you;  and  they  are  all  leading  you  astray  when  they  say  that 
you  must  be  beaten  in  a  sea-fight  at  Salamis,  and  that  this  is  meant 
by  the  words  in  which  Salamis  is  called  the  destroyer  of  the  chil- 
dren of  women.  The  words  do  not  mean  this.  If  they  had  been 
spoken  of  us,  the  priestess  would  certainly  have  said  'Salamis  the 
wretched,'  not  'Salamis  the  divine.'  They  are  spoken  not  of  us, 
but  of  our  enemies.  Arm  then  for  the  fight  at  sea,  for  the  fleet  is 
your  wooden  wall."  When  we  remember  the  means  by  which  the 
responses  were  produced  which  bade  Cleomenes  drive  the  Pisistra- 
tidae  from  Athens,  we  can  scarcely  suppose  that  Themistocles 
would  fail  to  make  use  of  an  instrument  so  well  fitted  to  further 
his  designs.  That  to  the  grounds  of  encouragement  thus  obtained 
from  Delphi  he  added  the  expression  of  his  own  conviction  that 
Athens  must  conquer  if  she  confined  herself  to  her  own  proper 
path,  is  certain  from  the  results  which  he  brought  about.  It  was 
only  the  mental  condition  of  his  time  which  threw  into  the  back- 
ground arguments  better  suited  for  a  later  generation. 

But  although  by  adopting  the  policy  of  Themistocles  Athens 
insured  her  ultimate  supremacy,  the  time  was  not  yet  come  for  its 
general  recognition.  The  allies  assembled  in  the  congress  at  the 
Corinthian  isthmus  declared  bluntly  that  they  would  rather  with- 
draw from  the  confederacy  than  submit  to  any  rule  except  that  of 
Sparta;  and  with  genuine  patriotism  the  Athenians  at  once  waived 
a  claim  on  which  they  might  fairly  have  insisted.  They  alone 
were  ready  to  see  their  families  exiled,  their  lands  ravaged,  and 
their  city  burned  rather  than  suffer  the  ill-cemented  mass  of  Hel- 


THE   BATTLE    OF  SALAMIS  45 

lenic  society  to  fall  utterly  to  pieces.  From  Argos  and  from  Boeotia 
generally  they  had  nothing  to  hope.  The  Argives,  sprung  from 
the  hero  Perseus,  professed  to  regard  the  Persians  as  their  kinsfolk, 
and  insisted  on  remaining  neutral  in  the  contest,  while  the  Boeotian 
chiefs,  keeping  do^^^l  a  discontented  population,  committed  them- 
selves to  an  anti-Hellenic  policy  and  clung  to  it  with  a  desperate 
zeal.  The  Corcyreans  met  the  messengers  from  the  congress  with 
assurances  of  ready  help ;  but  the  sixty  ships  which  they  sent  were 
under  officers  who  were  charged  to  linger  on  their  voyage.  They 
acted  from  the  belief  that  the  Greeks  must  inevitably  be  over- 
whelmed, and  in  this  case  they  were  to  claim  credit  with  Xerxes 
for  not  exerting  against  him  a  force  which  might  have  turned  the 
scale  the  other  way.  If  the  Greeks  should  be  the  victors,  they 
were  to  express  their  regret  that  adverse  winds  had  baffled  all  their 
efforts  to  double  the  southern  promontories  of  the  Peloponnesus. 
The  messengers  sent  to  Gelon,  the  despot  of  Syracuse,  met  with 
not  much  better  success.  To  their  warning  that  if  he  failed  to  help 
his  eastern  kinsfolk  he  would  leave  the  way  open  for  the  absorption 
of  Sicily  into  the  Persian  empire,  he  replied  by  an  indignant  con- 
demnation of  their  selfishness  in  refusing  to  help  him  when  he  was 
hard  pressed  by  the  Carthaginians.  Still  he  promised  to  send  them  a 
vast  force  and  to  meet  practically  the  whole  expenses  of  the  war,  if 
they  would  recognize  him  as  chief  and  leader  of  the  Greeks  against 
the  barbarians.  This  was  more  than  the  Spartan  envoy  could  en- 
dure. "In  very  deed,"  he  cried,  "would  Agamemnon  mourn,  if 
he  were  to  hear  that  the  Spartans  had  been  robbed  of  their  honor 
by  the  Syracusans.  Dream  not  that  we  shall  ever  j-ield  it  to  j'ou." 
But  Gelon  was  not  to  be  put  down  by  high  words.  "Spartan 
friend,"  he  answered,  "abuse  commonly  makes  a  man  angry;  but 
I  will  not  repay  insults  in  kind.  So  far  will  I  yield,  that  if  ye  rule 
by  sea  I  will  rule  by  land,  and  if  ye  rule  bj"  land,  then  I  must  rule 
on  the  sea. ' '  But  here  the  Athenian  envoy  broke  in  with  a  pro- 
test that,  although  his  countrymen  were  ready  to  follow  Spartan 
leadership  on  land,  they  would  give  place  to  none  on  the  sea;  and 
Gelon  closed  the  debate  by  telling  them  that  they  seemed  likely  to 
have  many  leaders,  but  few  to  be  led,  and  hj  bidding  them  go 
back  and  tell  the  Greeks  that  the  springtime  had  been  taken  out 


46  GREAT   BATTLES   OF   ALL   NATIONS 

of  the  year.  But  Herodotus,  while  he  seems  to  give  credit  to  this 
story,  candidly  admits  that  there  were  other  versions  of  the  tale, 
and  that  the  genuine  Sicilian  tradition  represented  Gelon  as  pre- 
vented from  aiding  the  Greeks  not  by  Spartan  claims  to  supremacy, 
but  by  the  attack  of  a  Carthaginian  army  under  Hamilcar  equal  in 
number  to  the  unwieldy  force  of  the  Persian  king.  As  therefore 
he  could  not  help  them  with  men,  this  version  speaks  of  him  as 
sending  in  their  stead  a  sum  of  money  for  their  use  to  Delphi. 

Amid  all  these  discouragements,  the  Greeks,  who  were  not  dis- 
posed to  Medize,  fully  felt  the  paramount  need  of  guarding  the 
entrances  into  the  country,  and  thus  of  placing  all  possible  hin- 
derances  in  the  invader's  path.  The  first  and  apparently  the  most 
important  of  those  passes  was  that  of  Tempe ;  and  the  wisdom  of 
guarding  this  defile  seemed  to  be  proved  by  the  eagerness  with 
which  this  measure  was  urged  by  the  Thessalian  people.  Along 
this  pass  for  five  miles  a  road  is  carried,  nowhere  more  than  twenty 
and  in  some  parts  not  more  than  thirteen  feet  in  width ;  and  when 
it  was  occupied  by  Themistocles  with  a  force  of  ten  thousand  hop- 
lites  or  heavy-armed  soldiers,  it  might  have  been  thought  that  the 
progress  of  the  barbarians  was  effectually  barred.  But  they  were 
soon  reminded  that  a  way  lay  open  to  the  west  by  the  Perrhebian 
town  of  Gonnos,  and  that  they  might  thus  be  themselves  taken  in 
the  rear  and  starved  into  submission.  They  were  compelled  there- 
fore to  abandon  the  pass ;  and  the  ThessaUans,  now  left,  as  they 
had  warned  Themistocles  that  in  this  case  they  must  be  left,  to 
the  absolute  dictation  of  their  chiefs,  became,  perhaps  from  a  natu- 
ral feeling  of  irritation  at  the  conduct  of  their  allies,  zealous  par- 
tisans of  the  Persian  king.  But  the  resolution  to  retreat  from 
Tempe  was  accompanied  by  a  determination  to  fall  back  on  Ther- 
mopylse,  while  the  fleet  should  take  up  its  station  off  Artemision  or 
the  northernmost  coast  of  Euboea,  facing  the  Malian  gulf. 

The  accumulation  of  mud  at  the  mouth  of  the  Sperchios  has  so 
changed  the  form  of  the  Malian  gulf  since  the  time  of  Herodotus 
that  some  of  the  most  material  features  in  his  description  no  longer 
apply  to  this  memorable  pass.  The  mouth  of  the  Sperchios,  which 
then  flowed  into  the  sea  about  five  miles  to  the  west  of  the  pass,  is 
now  shifted  to  a  distance  nearly  four  miles  to  the  east  of  it.     We 


THE   BATTLE   OF   SALAMIS  47 

look,  therefore,  in  vain  for  the  narrow  space  where  the  ridge  of 
Eta,  bearing  here  the  name  Anopea,  came  down  above  the  town 
of  Anthela  so  close  to  the  water  as  to  leave  room  for  nothing  more 
than  a  cart-track.     Between  this  point  (at  a  distance  of  perhaps  a 
mile  and  a  half  to  the  east)  and  the  first  Locrian  hamlet  Alpenoi, 
another  spur  of  the  mountain  locked  in  the  wider  space  within 
which  the  army  of  Leonidas  took  up  its  post,  but  which,  for  all 
practical  purposes,  was  as  narrow  as  the  passes  at  either  extremity 
known  as  the  Gates  or  Hot  Gates,  PylsB  or  Thermopylae.     This 
narrow  road  was  hemmed  in  by  the  precipitous  mountain  on  the 
one  side  and  on  the   other  by  the  marshes  produced  by  the  hot 
springs  which,  under  the  name  of  Chytroi,  or  the  Pans,  formed  a 
resort  for  bathers.     To  render  the  passage  still  more  difficult  than 
nature  had  made  it,  the  Phocians  had  led  the  mineral  waters  al- 
most over  the  whole  of  it,  and  had  also  built  across  it,  near  the 
western  entrance,  a  wall  with  strong  gates.    Much  of  this  work  had 
fallen  from  age;  but  it  was  now  repaired,  and  behind  it  the  Greek 
army  determined  to  await  the  attack  of  the  invaders.     Here,  about 
the  summer  solstice,  was  assembled  a  force  not  exceeding,  it  would 
seem,  at  the  utmost  eight  thousand  or  ten  thousand  men,  imder 
the  Spartan  Leonidas,  who,  having  to  his  sm-prise  succeeded  to  the 
kingly  office,  had,  as  Spartan  custom  permitted,  married  Gorgo, 
the'' daughter  of  his  brother  Cleomenes.     Three  hundred  picked 
hoplites,  or  heavy-armed  citizens,   attended  him  on  this  his  first 
and  last  expedition  as  king,  and  with  these  were  ranged  the  con- 
tingents from  the  Arcadian   Tegea,  Mantinia,  and   Orchomenus, 
from  Corinth,  Phlious,  and  Mycenas,  from  the  Phocians  and  the 
Locrians  of  Opous,  together  with  seven  hundred  Thespians,  and, 
lastly,  five  hundred  Thebans,  taken  as  hostages  for  the  fidelity  of 
their  city  to  the  Greek  cause. 

The  narrative  of  the  events  which  took  place  in  this  formidable 
pass  has  been  distorted,  partly  by  the  variations  which  the  oral 
tradition  of  nearly  half  a  century  is  sure  to  introduce  into  any 
story,  but  much  more  from  the  desire  to  glorify  or  stigmatize  the 
citizens  of  particular  towns.  In  some  respects  the  true  account 
has  been  so  far  overiaid  as  to  be  beyond  recovery- ;  but  significant 
indications  remain  to  show  that  the  conflict  in  Thermopylae  was 


48  GREAT   BATTLES    OF   ALL   NATIONS 

more  equal  and  the  defeat  of  the  Greeks  far  more  serious  than  the 
story  told  by  Herodotus  would  lead  us  to  imagine.  The  great  ob- 
ject of  the  narrators  was  to  extol  the  heroism  of  Leonidas  and  his 
Spartan  followers,  just  as  at  Salamis  the  chief  credit  of  the  victory 
was  given  to  the  Athenians;  and  this  heroism  would  be  brought 
out  into  the  clearest  light  by  representing  these  three  hundred  as 
sustaining  not  without  some  success  the  onset  of  three  million. 
But  the  wild  exaggeration  of  the  Persian  numbers  is  made  mani- 
fest by  the  fact  that  the  Greeks  regarded  a  force  of  eight  thousand 
or  ten  thousand  men  as  sufficient  to  maintain  the  pass  until  the 
main  body  of  their  troops  could  be  brought  up ;  nor  can  we  take 
the  statement  that  one  Athenian  citizen  was  present  there  as  any- 
thing more  than  a  sign  that  there  were  many  more.  They  had 
dispatched  Themistocles  with  a  large  force  to  occupy  the  pass  of 
Tempe ;  and  it  is  to  the  last  degree  unhkely  that  they  would  make 
no  effort  to  defend  the  still  more  important  pass  at  Thermopylae, 
or  that  the  allies  should  fail  to  reproach  them  if  they  refused  to 
discharge  this  duty. 

"While  the  Spartans  were  here  awaiting  the  approach  of  their 
enemies  by  land,  the  Persian  fleet  underwent  a  terrible  disaster 
on  the  narrow  strip  of  Magnesian  coast,  which  it  reached  on  the 
eleventh  day  after  the  departure  of  Xerxes  from  Therme.  Here, 
beneath  the  everlasting  hills,  the  Divine  Nemesis,  or  Retributive 
Justice,  was  to  lay  its  hand  on  the  overweening  power  of  Xerxes. 
Bidden  by  the  Delphian  oracle  to  pray  to  the  winds  as  their  best 
allies,  the  Athenians  invoked  the  aid  of  their  kinsman  Boreas  (the 
northern  blast),  who  had  married  Orithyia,  the  daughter  of  their 
king  Erechtheus,  and  after  the  great  storm  they  raised  a  temple 
in  his  honor  on  the  banks  of  the  River  Ilissus.  Fearing  no  dan- 
ger, the  Persian  commanders  moored  on  the  beach  those  ships 
which  came  first,  while  the  rest  lay  beyond  them  at  anchor,  ranged 
in  rows  eight  deep  facing  the  sea.  At  daybreak  the  air  was  clear 
and  the  sea  still ;  but  the  breeze,  called  in  these  regions  the  wind 
of  the  Hellespont,  soon  rose,  and  gathered  to  a  storm.  Those  who 
had  time  drew  their  ships  up  on  the  shore;  but  all  the  vessels 
which  were  out  at  sea  were  torn  from  their  anchors  and  dashed 
upon  the  Ovens  of  Pelion  and  all  along  the  beach  as  far  as  Castha- 


THE   BATTLE   OF   SALAMIS  49 

nea.  For  four  days  the  storm  raged  furiously.  The  shore  was 
strewn  with  costly  treasures  of  Eastern  art  and  luxury ;  and  the 
goblets  of  silver  and  gold  gathered  by  the  fortunate  owner  of  this 
bleak  domain  made  him  a  man  of  enormous  wealth.  Meanwhile 
the  Greeks,  who  on  the  approach  of  the  Persian  fleet  had  retreated 
to  the  Euripus,  heard,  on  the  second  day  of  the  storm,  how  the 
Persians  were  faring  at  sea,  and,  plucking  up  courage,  sailed  back 
through  the  comparatively  smooth  waters  of  the  Euboean  Sea  to 
Artemisium.  Their  enemies,  however,  were  not  so  much  crippled 
as  the  Greeks  had  hoped  to  find  them.  When  the  storm  abated, 
their  ships,  drawn  down  from  the  shore,  sailed  to  Aphette,  at  the 
entrance  of  the  Pagasean  gulf,  and  took  up  their  position  precisely 
opposite  to  the  Greek  fleet  at  Artemisium.  Some  hours  later,  a 
Persian  squadron,  mistaking  the  Greek  fleet  for  their  own,  sailed 
straight  into  the  trap  and  were  captured.  From  the  prisoners, 
among  whom  was  the  satrap  Sandoces,  the  Greeks  obtained  useful 
information  of  the  movements  and  plans  of  the  Persian  king. 

Xerxes,  in  the  meanwhile,  had  advanced  through  Thessaly,  and 
encamped  in  the  Malian  Trachis,  distant  a  few  miles  only  from  the 
ground  occupied  by  the  defenders  of  the  pass.  Here,  as  we  are  told 
in  the  exquisitely  beautiful  narrative  of  Herodotus,  the  Persian 
king  sent  a  horseman  on  to  see  what  the  Greeks  might  be  doing. 
To  the  west  of  the  old  Phocian  wall,  the  messenger  saw  the  Spar- 
tans with  their  arms  piled,  while  some  were  wrestling  and  others 
combing  their  hair.  His  report  seemed  to  convict  them  of  mere 
folly;  but  Demaratus  assured  him  that  the  combing  of  their  hair 
was  a  sign  that  the  Spartans  were  preparing  to  face  a  mortal  dan- 
ger. "How  can  so  few  men  ever  fight  with  my  great  army?"  asked 
the  king;  and  for  four  days  he  waited,  thinking  that  they  must 
run  away.  At  last  he  ordered  his  army  to  advance;  but  their 
efforts  were  vain.  Troop  after  troop  was  hurled  back,  until  the 
Immortals  were  bidden  to  carry  the  pass.  But  their  spears  were 
shorter  than  those  of  the  Greeks ;  linen  tunics  were  of  little  use  in 
an  encounter  with  iron-clad  men ;  and  mere  numbers  were  a  hin- 
derance  in  the  narrow  pass.  Pretending  to  fly,  the  Spartans  drew 
the  barbarians  on,  and  then,  turning  round,  cut  them  down  with- 
out mercy.     Thrice  the  king  leaped  from  iiis  throne  in  terror  dur* 


50  GREAT    BATTLES    OF  ALL    NATIONS 

ing  that  terrible  fight ;  but  on  the  f ollo"wing  day  he  renewed  the 
onset,  thinking  that  the  enemy  must  be  too  tired  to  fight.  The 
Greeks  were  all  drawn  out  in  battle  array,  except  the  Phocians, 
who  had  been  detached  to  guard  the  path  which  led  over  the  ridge 
Anopea.  The  scenes  of  the  day  before  were  repeated,  and  Xerxes 
was  well  nigh  at  his  wits'  end  when  a  Mahan  named  Ephialtes  told 
him  o/  ini  mountain  pathway.  Having  received  the  king's  or- 
ders, Hydarnes  set  out  from  the  camp  as  the  daylight  died  away; 
and  all  night  long  with  his  men  he  followed  the  path,  the  moun- 
tains of  Eta  rising  on  the  right  hand  and  the  hills  of  Trachis  on 
the  left.  The  day  was  dawning  with  the  deep  stillness  which 
marks  early  morning  in  Greece  when  they  reached  the  peak  where 
the  thousand  Phocians  were  on  guard.  These  knew  nothing  of  the 
approach  of  the  enemy  while  they  were  climbing  the  hill,  which 
was  covered  with  oak-trees ;  but  they  knew  what  had  happened 
as  soon  as  the  Persians  drew  near  to  the  summit.  Not  a  breath 
of  wind  was  stirring,  and  they  heard  the  trampling  of  their  feet 
as  they  trod  on  the  fallen  leaves.  The  barbarians  were  on  them 
before  they  could  well  put  on  their  arms.  Dismaj^ed  at  first,  for 
he  had  not  expected  any  resistance,  Hydarnes  drew  out  his  men 
for  battle ;  and  the  Phocians,  covered  "^vith  a  shower  of  arrows,  fell 
back  from  the  path  to  the  highest  ground,  and  then  made  ready 
to  fight  and  die.  But  the  Persians  had  come  with  no  notion  of 
attacking  them,  and  "svithout  taking  further  notice  they  hastened 
down  the  mountain.  In  the  Greek  camp  the  tidings  that  Hy- 
darnes was  at  hand  were  received  with  mingled  feelings.  Among 
the  Spartans  they  excited  no  surprise,  for  the  soothsayer  Megistias 
had  told  them  the  day  before  that  on  the  morrow  they  must  die. 
In  some  of  the  allies  they  created  an  unreasoning  terror ;  and  Leon- 
idas,  wishing  that  the  Spartans  might  have  all  the  glory,  resolved 
on  sending  all  away.  The  Thebans  and  Thespians  alone  remained, 
the  former  because  Leonidas  insisted  on  keeping  them  as  pledges 
for  their  countrjinen,  the  latter  because  they  would  not  save  their 
lives  by  treacherj'-  to  the  cause  to  which  they  had  devoted  them- 
selves. When  the  sun  rose,  Xerxes  poured  out  wine  to  the  god, 
and,  by  the  bidding  of  Ephialtes,  tarried  till  the  time  of  the  filling 
of  the  market  (about  9  a.m.).     The  battle,  which  began  when  the 


THE   BATTLE   OF   SALAMIS  51 

signal  was  given  for  onset,  was  marked  by  fearful  slaughter  on 
the  side  of  the  barbarians,  who  were  driven  on  with  scourges  an(7 
blows.  Many  fell  into  the  sea  and  were  drowned;  many  more 
were  trampled  down  alive  by  one  another.  At  length,  overborne 
by  sheer  weight  of  numbers,  Leonidas  with  other  Spartans  fell, 
fighting  nobly;  and  a  desperate  conflict  was  maintained  over  his 
body,  until  Hydarnes  came  up  with  his  men.  Finding  themselves 
thus  taken  in  the  rear,  the  Greeks  went  back  into  the  narrow  part 
within  the  wall,  and  here,  after  performing  prodigies  of  valor,  the 
Thespians  and  Spartans  were  all  cut  down ;  the  bravest  of  the  lat- 
ter being,  it  was  said,  Dieneces,  who,  hearing  from  a  Trachian 
just  before  the  battle  that  when  the  Persians  shot  their  arrows  the 
sun  was  darkened  by  them,  answered  merrily,  "Our  friend  from 
Trachis  brings  us  good  news :  we  shall  fight  in  the  shade. ' '  All 
were  buried  where  they  fell ;  and  in  after  days  the  inscription  over 
the  allies  recorded  that  four  thousand  Peloponnesians  fought  here 
with  three  hundred  myriads.  Over  the  Spartans  was  another 
writing,  which  said: 

Tell  the  Spartans,  at  their  bidding. 
Stranger,  here  in  death  we  lie. 

Two  only  of  the  three  hundred  Spartans  who  came  with  Leonidas 
were  lying  sick  at  Alpenoi.  The  one,  Eurytus,  calling  for  his 
arms,  bade  his  guide  lead  him  into  the  battle  (for  his  eyes  were 
diseased),  and  plunging  into  the  fight  was  there  slain.  The  other, 
Aristodemus,  went  back  to  Sparta  and  was  avoided  by  aU  as  the 
dastard.  But  he  got  back  his  good  name  when  he  flung  away  his 
life  at  Platsea.  As  to  the  Thebans,  they  took  the  first  opportunity 
of  hastening  to  the  king  with  a  story  which  Herodotus  calls  the 
truest  of  all  tales,  saying  that  they  were  the  first  to  give  earth  and 
water,  and  that  they  had  gone  into  the  fight  sorely  against  their 
will.  The  issue  of  the  battle  set  Xerxes  pondering.  Summoning 
Demaratus,  he  asked  how  many  Spartans  might  be  left,  and  re- 
ceived for  answer  that  there  might  be  about  eight  thousand.  To 
the  question  how  these  men  were  to  be  conquered,  Demaratus  re- 
plied that  there  was  but  one  way,  and  this  was  to  send  a  detach- 
ment of  the  fleet  to  occupy  the  island  of  Cythera,  off  the  southern- 


52  GREAT    BATTLES    OF    ALL    NATIONS 

most  promontory  of  Peloponnesus.  This  suggestion  was  received 
with  vehement  outcries  by  some  of  the  Persian  generals.  Four 
hundred  ships  had  already  been  shattered  by  the  storm  on  the 
Magnesian  coast ;  if  the  fleet  were  further  divided,  as  it  would  be 
by  this  proposal,  the  Greeks  would  at  once  be  a  match  for  them. 
The  advice  of  the  exiled  Spartan  king  was  rejected,  and  Xerxes 
applied  himself  to  the  task  of  turning  to  good  purpose  his  victory 
at  Thermopylae.  His  order  to  behead  and  crucify  the  body  of  Leon- 
idas  was  followed  by  a  proclamation  inviting  all  who  might  choose 
to  do  so  to  visit  the  battle-ground  and  see  how  the  great  king 
treated  his  enemies.  The  trick  was  transparent  even  to  Eastern 
minds.  In  one  heap  were  gathered  the  bodies  of  four  thousand 
Greeks,  in  another  lay  those  of  one  thousand  Persians.  One  more 
incident  points  the  great  moral  of  the  story  of  Thermopylae.  Some 
Arcadian  deserters,  on  being  asked  by  Xerxes  what  the  Greeks 
were  doing,  answered  that  they  were  keeping  the  feast  at  Olympia, 
and  looking  on  the  contests  of  wrestlers  and  horsemen.  A  further 
question  brought  out  the  fact  that  the  victors  were  rewarded  with 
a  simple  olive  wreath.  "Ah!  Mardonius,"  exclaimed  Tritantaith- 
mes,  with  emotion,  which  Xerxes  ascribed  to  cowardice,  "what 
men  are  these  against  whom  you  have  brought  us  here  to  fight, 
who  strive  not  for  money,  but  for  glory?" 

Beautiful  as  this  story  of  the  battle  may  be,  it  is  easy  to  see 
that  it  is  not  an  accurate  narrative  of  the  events  as  they  occurred. 
With  a  force  numbering  not  much  more  than  eight  thousand  men, 
Leonidas  is  said  to  have  kept  in  check  the  whole  Persian  army  for 
ten  or  twelve  days,  and  to  have  inflicted  on  them  very  serious  loss. 
Nothing  can  show  more  clearly  that  he  might  have  held  his  ground 
successfully,  had  he  chosen  to  place  an  effectual  guard  on  the  ridge 
of  Anopea,  and  to  keep  under  his  own  standard  all  who  were  not 
needed  for  that  duty.  The  conduct  of  the  Phocians  destroyed,  we 
are  told,  all  chances  of  ultimate  success,  but  it  still  left  open  the 
possibility  of  retreat,  and  more  than  four  thousand  troops  were  ac- 
cordingly dismissed  and  got  away  safely.  This,  so  far  as  we  can 
see,  seems  impossible.  "Within  an  hour  from  the  time  of  his  leav- 
ing the  Phocians  on  the  top  of  the  hill,  Hydarnes  with  his  men  must 
have  reached  the  Eastern  Gates  through  which  these  four  thou- 


THE    BATTLE    OF   SALAMIS  53 

sand  would  have  to  pass ;  and  it  is  absurd  to  suppose  that,  within 
a  few  minutes  of  the  time  when  they  learned  that  the  Persians 
were  at  hand,  so  large  a  force  could  have  made  its  way  along  a 
narrow  strip  of  ground,  in  some  parts  scarcely  wider  than  a  cart- 
track.  It  is  clear  that  if  under  such  circumstances  the  retreat  was 
effected  at  all,  it  must  have  been  accomplished  by  sheer  hard  fight- 
ing ;  but  the  narrative  speaks  of  a  peaceable  and  even  of  a  leisurely 
departure.  Nor  can  we  well  avoid  the  conclusion  that  Leonidas 
would  have  taken  a  wiser  course  had  he  sent  these  four  thousand 
along  with  the  Phocians  to  guard  Anopea,  with  orders  that  thoy 
were  to  hold  it  at  all  hazards.  Nor  is  the  story  told  of  the  Thebans 
in  his  camp  less  perplexing.  Their  behavior  cannot  be  explained 
on  the  theory  that  they  were  citizens  of  the  anti-Persian  party,  and 
that  after  the  fall  of  Leonidas  they  were  glad  to  take  credit  for  a 
Medism  which  they  did  not  feel.  Distinctly  contradicting  any 
such  supposition,  Herodotus  maintains  that  their  profession  of 
Medism  was  the  truest  of  all  pleas;  nor  would  the  Thessalians 
have  vouched  for  the  credit  of  men  of  whose  Hellenic  sympathies 
they  must  on  this  theory  have  been  perfectly  aware.  But  if  they 
were  thus  kept  in  the  Greek  camp  wholly  against  their  will,  it  is 
strange  indeed  that  they  should  forego  all  opportunities  of  aiding 
the  cause  of  Xerxes,  whether  by  openly  joining  Hydarnes  or  pas- 
sively hindering  the  operations  of  Leonidas.  When,  further,  we  see 
that  the  special  object  of  the  whole  narrative  is  to  glorify  the  Spar- 
tans, we  are  justified  in  inferring  that  the  care  taken  by  the  com- 
manders of  the  Athenian  fleet  to  obtain  early  tidings  from  the 
army  of  Thermopylae  indicates  the  presence  of  an  Athenian  force 
within  the  pass,  and  that  the  resistance  to  Xerxes  was  on  a  far 
larger  scale  than  Herodotus  has  represented,  A  compulsory,  and, 
still  more,  a  disastrous,  retreat  of  the  allies  might  be  veiled  under 
the  decent  plea  that  they  were  dismissed  by  the  Spartan  chief;  and 
if  they  were  conscious  of  faint-heartedness,  they  would  not  care 
to  hinder  the  growth  of  a  story  which  covered  their  remissness  in 
the  Hellenic  cause,  while  it  enhanced  the  renown  of  Leonidas  and 
his  Three  Hundred. 

Of  the  disaster  which  befell  the  Persian  fleet  on  the  Magnesian 
coast,  the  Greeks  on  board  their  ships  at  the  Euripus  heard  on  the 


54  GREAT   BATTLES    OF   ALL   NATIONS 

second  day  after  the  beginning  of  the  storm ;  and  no  sooner  had 
they  received  the  tidings  than  they  set  off  with  all  speed  for  Arte- 
misium.  The  storm  lasted  four  days,  and  the  Greek  fleet  had  thus 
been  stationed  on  the  northern  shore  of  Euboea  for  eight-and-forty 
hours  before  the  Persian  ships  became  visible  as  they  sailed  to 
Aphetas.  Here  the  confederate  fleet  awaited  their  arrival,  the 
whole  number  being  two  hundred  and  seventy-one  ships,  of  which 
Athens  furnished  not  less  than  one  hundred  and  twenty -seven,  or 
it  may  rather  be  said  one  hundred  and  forty-seven,  if  we  take  into 
account  the  twenty  Athenian  vessels  manned  by  the  Chalcidians. 
The  supreme  command  of  the  force  was  in  the  hands  of  the  Spar- 
tan Eury blades.  The  other  cities  had  insisted  on  this  arrangement 
as  an  indispensable  condition  of  the  alliance ;  and,  to  their  lasting 
credit,  the  Athenians,  yielding  at  once,  waited  patiently  until  the 
turn  of  events  opened  the  way  to  the  most  brilliant  maritime 
dominion  of  the  ancient  world. 

Reaching  Aphetae  late  in  the  afternoon  of  the  fourth  day 
after  the  beginning  of  the  storm,  the  Persians  saw  the  scanty 
Greek  fleet  awaiting  their  arrival  off  Artemisium.  Their  first  im- 
pulse was  to  attack  them  immediately ;  they  were  restrained  only 
by  the  wish  that  not  a  single  Greek  vessel  should  escape.  A  Per- 
sian squadron  was  accordingly  sent,  the  same  afternoon,  round  the 
east  coast  of  Euboea  to  take  the  enemy  in  the  rear.  Before  the 
evening  closed,  or,  at  least,  early  the  next  morning,  a  deserter  from 
the  Persian  fleet  brought  to  the  Greeks  the  news  of  the  measures 
taken  to  place  them  between  two  fires,  and  it  is  expressly  stated 
that  until  the  Persian  fleet  became  visible  off  Aphetse  they  had  no 
intention  of  retreating.  But  little  room,  therefore,  is  left  for  the 
story  which  tells  us  that  on  seeing  the  Persian  fleet,  which  they 
had  specially  come  up  to  attack,  the  Greeks  resolved  at  once  to  fall 
back  on  Chalcis,  and  were  prevented  from  so  doing  only  by  The- 
mistocles,  who  bribed  Eurybiades  with  five  talents  and  the  Co- 
rinthian leader  Adimantus  with  three,  to  remain  where  they  were 
until  the  Euboeans  should  have  removed  their  families  from  the 
island.  These  eight  talents  formed  part  of  a  sum  of  thirty  talents 
which  the  Euboeans,  it  is  said,  bestowed  on  Themistocles  to  secure 
liis  aid  for  this  purpose ;   and  we  must  note  here  four  points :  first, 


THE   BATTLE   OF   SALAMIS  55 

that  Themistocles  retained  for  himself  the  huge  sum  of  twenty-two 
talents ;  second,  that,  although  they  must  in  an  hour  or  two  have 
learned  that  their  bribe  was  a  useless  waste  of  money,  the  Euboeans 
never  sought  to  recover  the  whole  or  any  portion  of  it ;  third,  that 
if  they  had  asked  redress  from  the  Athenians,  the  latter  would  read- 
ily have  given  it ;  and,  fourth,  that,  although  twice  or  thrice  after- 
ward it  was  a  matter  of  vital  moment  that  Themistocles  should 
overcome  the  opposition  of  his  colleagues,  there  is  not  even  a  hint 
that  he  ever  attempted  to  bribe  them  again. 

The  debate  which  followed  the  receipt  of  the  news  that  the  Per- 
sian squadron  had  been  sent  round  Euboea,  ended  in  the  resolution 
to  sail  down  the  strait  under  cover  of  darkness,  for  the  purpose  of 
engaging  the  squadron  separately ;  but  finding,  as  the  day  wore 
on,  that  the  Persian  fleet  remained  motionless,  they  determined 
to  use  the  remaining  hours  of  light  in  attacking  the  enemy,  and 
thus  gaining  some  experience  in  their  way  of  fighting.  As  the 
Greeks  drew  near,  the  Persians,  as  at  Marathon,  thought  them 
mad,  so  it  is  said,  and  surrounded  them  with  their  more  numerous 
and  faster-sailing  ships,  to  the  dismay  of  the  lonians  serving  under 
Xerxes,  who  looked  on  their  kinsfolk  as  on  victims  ready  for  the 
slaughter.  But  on  a  given  signal,  the  Greeks  drew  their  ships  into 
a  circle  with  their  sterns  inward  and  their  prows  ready  for  the 
charge.  On  the  second  signal  a  conflict  ensued,  in  which  the 
Greeks  took  thirty  ships ;  and  the  desertion  of  a  Lemnian  vessel 
from  the  Persians  showed  the  disposition  of  the  Asiatic  Greeks 
toward  their  western  kinsfolk. 

During  the  following  night  the  storm  again  burst  forth  with 
terrific  lightning  and  deluges  of  rain.  The  wrecks  and  the  dead 
bodies  were  borne  by  the  waves  to  Aphetae ;  but  the  full  stress  of 
the  tempest  fell  on  the  Persian  squadron  coasting  round  Euboea 
for  the  purpose  of  cutting  off  the  retreat  of  the  Greeks.  Almost 
all  were  dashed  against  the  rocks ;  and  thus  again,  the  historian 
adds,  the  divine  Nemesis  worked  to  bring  their  numbers  more 
nearly  to  a  par  with  those  of  their  enemies.  The  morning  brought 
no  cheering  sight  to  the  barbarians  at  Aphetae,  while  the  Greeks, 
elated  at  the  tidings  that  the  Persian  ships  off  Euboea  were  de- 
stroyed, were  further  strengthened  by  a  re-enforcement  of  fifty- 


56  GREAT   BATTLES    OF    ALL   NATIONS 

three  Athenian  ships.  The  alHes  attempted  nothing  more  than  an 
attack  on  a  knot  of  ships  which  they  captured,  and  then  came  back 
to  their  stations ;  but  even  this  was  presumption  not  to  be  endured, 
and  the  Persian  leaders,  seriously  fearing  the  wrath  of  the  king, 
resolved  on  fighting.  The  battle  was  fiercely  contested.  The  Per- 
sians, with  their  ships  drawn  out  crescentwise,  sought  to  surround 
and  overwhelm  the  confederate  fleet,  and  they  failed,  we  are  told, 
more  from  the  unwieldy  numbers  of  their  vessels  than  from  any 
lack  of  spirit  in  their  crews.  Although  the  Greeks  were  on  the 
whole  the  victors,  the  Spartans  and  their  allies  were  so  weakened 
that  retreat  once  more  appeared  the  only  course  open  to  them. 
The  Euboean  money,  we  might  suppose,  might  now  have  been 
used  with  advantage ;  but  we  are  not  told  that  Themistocles  offered 
again  to  bribe  them,  and  all  efforts  were  useless,  when  a  scout 
came  with  the  tidings  that  Leonidas  was  slain,  and  that  Xerxes 
was  master  of  the  pass  which  formed  the  gate  of  Southern  Hellas. 
The  Greek  fleet  at  once  began  to  retreat,  the  Corinthians  lead- 
ing the  way,  and  the  Athenians  following  last  in  order. 

It  is  from  this  point  that  the  courage  of  the  Athenians  rises  to 
that  patriotic  devotion  which  drew  forth  the  enthusiastic  eulogies 
of  Herodotus ;  and  it  rises  just  in  proportion  as  the  spirit  of  their 
allies  gives  way.  The  one  thought  of  the  latter  was  now  fixed  on 
the  defense  of  the  Peloponnesus  alone.  They  had  convinced  them- 
selves that  no  Persian  fleet  would  visit  the  shores  of  Argolis  and 
Laconia;  and  their  natural  conclusion  was  that  if  they  guarded  the 
Corinthian  isthmus  they  needed  to  do  nothing  more.  Against  this 
plan  Themistocles  made  an  indignant  protest ;  and  although  we  are 
not  told  that  the  Euboean  money  was  employed  to  second  his  re- 
monstrances, he  persuaded  them  to  make  a  stand  at  Salamis  until 
the  Athenians  should  have  removed  their  households  from  Attica. 
Here,  then,  the  fleet  remained,  while  the  Peloponnesians  were 
working  night  and  day  in  order  to  fortify  the  isthmus.  Stones, 
bricks,  pieces  of  wood,  mats  full  of  sand,  brought  by  myriads  of 
laborers,  soon  raised  the  wall  to  the  needful  height ;  but  the  com- 
pletion of  the  barrier  added  little,  it  seems,  to  the  confidence  of  its 
builders,  and  none  to  that  of  the  Peloponnesian  seamen  at  Salamis. 

Wg  have,  in  fact,  reached  the  time  of  the  greatest  depression 


THE   BATTLE    OF   SALAMIS  57 

on  the  part  of  the  Greeks ;  and  this  depression  marks  the  moment 
at  which  the  enterprise  of  Xerxes  had  heen  brought  most  nearly 
to  a  successful  issue.  The  story  of  Thermopylae  seems  to  indicate 
throughout  that  the  Persian  host  was  not  so  large,  and  the  Greek 
army  not  so  small,  as  they  are  represented ;  and  the  inaction  set 
down  to  the  score  of  the  Carniau  and  Olympian  festivals  ma}"  be 
nothing  more  than  an  excuse  invented  at  a  later  time  to  cover  the 
failure  of  really  strenuous  efforts.  To  the  average  Greek  the  glory 
of  the  struggle  la}'-  in  the  defeat  of  milhons  by  thousands ;  to  us 
the  splendor  of  the  achievement  is  vastly  enhanced,  if  the  power 
of  Xerxes  lay  not  so  much  in  his  numbers  as  in  the  strength  and 
spirit  of  his  genuine  Persian  soldiers.  The  tales  which  represent 
his  progress  as  that  of  a  rolling  snowball  have  their  origin  in  the 
vulgar  exaggerations  of  Eastern  nations ;  and  a  pardonable  feeling 
of  vanity  led  the  Greeks  to  regard  these  exaggerations  as  heighten- 
ing the  luster  of  their  own  exploits.  The  real  strength  of  the  army 
of  Xerxes  lay  beyond  doubt  in  the  men  whom  Cyrus  had  led  from 
conquest  to  conquest,  and  whose  vigor  and  courage  remain  unsub- 
dued after  the  lapse  of  five-and-twenty  centuries;  nor  can  we 
rightly  appreciate  the  character  of  the  struggle  and  its  issue  until 
we  see  that  the  Greeks  were  fighting  against  men  little,  if  at  all, 
inferior  to  themselves  in  any  except  the  one  point  that  the  Eastern 
Aryan  fought  to  establish  the  rule  of  one  despotic  will,  while  his 
Western  brother  strove  to  set  up  the  dominion  of  an  equal  law. 

Western  freedom  was,  in  truth,  in  far  greater  danger  than  it 
would  have  been  but  for  this  genuine  element  of  strength  in  the 
Persian  forces.  There  was  now  no  time  for  dilatory  counsels.  Im- 
mediately after  the  arrival  of  the  fleet  from  Artemisium,  a  procla- 
mation was  issued,  warning  all  Athenians  to  remove  their  families 
from  the  country  in  all  possible  haste.  How  far  this  order  may 
have  been  obeyed  we  cannot  say ;  but  from  all  those  parts  of  the 
country  which  lay  in  the  immediate  path  of  the  invader  the  inhab- 
itants bej'ond  doubt  fled  in  haste,  most  of  them  to  Trezen  in  the 
Argolic  peninsula,  some  to  Egina,  and  some  to  Salamis. 

Meanwhile,  to  the  north  of  Attica,  Xerxes  had  overcome  almost 
all  real  resistance.  With  the  exception  of  Thespise  and  Platsea,  all 
the  BcBotian  cities  had  submitted  to  him,  while  the  Thessahans  pro- 


58  GREAT   BATTLES   OF   ALL   NATIONS 

fessed  a  zeal  in  his  cause  which  Herodotus  ascribed  wholly  to  their 
hatred  of  the  Phocians.  By  way  of  revenging  old  affronts,  the 
Thessalians  led  the  Persians  through  the  narrow  little  strip  of 
Dorian  land,  and  then  let  them  loose  on  Phocis.  The  Phocian 
towns  were  all  burned ;  and  Abaj,  the  shrine  and  oracle  of  Apollo, 
was  despoiled  of  its  magnificent  treasures.  A  little  further  on,  the 
forces  were  divided.  The  larger  portion  went  on  through  Boeotia 
under  orders  to  join  Xerxes.  The  rest  marched,  it  is  said,  toward 
Delphi,  which  they  hoped  to  treat  as  they  had  treated  Abse.  The 
tidings  of  their  approach  so  dismayed  the  Delphians  that  they  asked 
the  god  whether  they  should  bury  his  holy  treasures  or  carry  them 
away.  "Move  them  not,"  answered  the  god,  "I  am  able  to  guard 
them."  Then,  taking  thought  for  themselves,  the  people  fled,  until 
there  remained  only  sixty  men  with  the  prophet  Aceratus.  As  the 
Persian  host  came  into  sight,  the  sacred  arms,  which  hung  in  the 
holy  place,  and  which  it  was  not  lawful  for  man  to  touch,  were 
seen  lying  in  front  of  the  temple ;  and  as  the  enemy  drew  nearer, 
the  lightnings  burst  from  heaven,  and  two  cliffs,  torn  from  the 
peaks  of  Parnassus,  dashed  down  with  a  thundering  sound,  crush- 
ing great  multitudes,  while  fierce  cries  and  shoutings  were  heard 
from  the  chapel  of  Athene.  In  utter  dismay  the  barbarians  fled; 
and  the  Delphians,  hurrying  down  from  the  mountain,  slew  with- 
out mercy  all  whom  they  overtook.  The  fugitives  who  escaped 
into  Boeotia  told  how  two  hoplites,  higher  in  stature  than  mor- 
tal man,  had  chased  them  with  fearful  slaughter  from  Delphi. 
The  rocks  which  fell  from  Parnassus,  Herodotus  beheved  that 
he  saw  lying  in  the  sacred  ground  of  Athene. 

This  inroad  on  Delphi  marks  in  the  narrative  of  Herodotus  the 
turning  point  in  the  enterprise  of  Xerxes.  It  is  the  most  daring 
provocation  of  divine  wrath  by  the  barbarian  despot;  and  while 
it  is  followed  immediately  by  his  own  humiliation,  it  insures  also 
the  destruction  of  the  army  which  he  was  to  leave  behind  him  with 
Mardonius.  But  we  shall  presently  find  Mardonius  den3ring  that 
any  such  enterprise  had  been  attempted,  while  the  narrative  of 
Plutarch  represents  the  Delphian  temple  not  only  as  having  been 
taken  by  the  Persians,  but  as  undergoing  the  fate  of  the  shrine  at 
Abae.     This  tradition  seems  to  be  set  aside  by  the  statement  of 


THE   BATTLE    OF   SALAMIS  59 

Herodotus,  that  he  had  himseK  seen  in  the  Delphian  treasury  the 
splendid  gifts  which  bore  the  names  of  Gyges  and  of  Croesus ;  but 
it  is  certain  that  the  story  of  the  enterprise  of  Xerxes  is  repeated 
precisely  in  the  story  of  the  attempt  made  on  Delphi  by  Bran 
(Brennus)  and  his  Gauls  just  two  centuries  later;  and  the  identity 
of  the  incidents  in  each  seems  to  show  that  the  form  given  to 
the  narrative  was  demanded  by  the  rehgious  sentiment  of  the 
people. 

In  Boeotia  Xerxes  was  still  moving  on  upon  the  path  which,  as 
he  fancied,  was  to  lead  him  to  his  final  triumph.  Four  months  had 
passed  since  his  army  crossed  over  the  Hellespont  when  the  tj-rant 
set  his  foot  on  Attic  soil  and  found  the  land  desolate.  The  city 
was  abandoned,  and  on  the  AcropoUs  there  remained  only  a  few 
poor  people  and  the  guardians  of  the  temples,  who,  to  carry  out 
the  letter  of  the  oracle,  had  blocked  with  a  wooden  pahsade  the 
only  side  which  was  supposed  to  He  open  to  attack.  Once  more 
the  Pisistratidse  stood  in  their  old  home,  and  regarded  themselves 
as  practically  repossessed  of  their  ancient  tyranny ;  but  the  offers 
which  they  made  to  the  occupants  of  the  Acropolis  were  rejected 
with  contempt.  In  vain  the  Persians  discharged  against  them 
arrows  bearing  hghted  tow;  and  Xerxes,  thus  foiled,  gave  him- 
seK up  to  one  of  his  fits  of  furious  passion.  But  a  fissure  in  the 
rock  on  the  northern  side  enabled  some  Persians  to  scramble  up  to 
the  summit.  Of  the  defenders,  a  few  threw  themselves  over  the 
precipice,  the  rest  took  refuge  in  the  temple  of  the  goddess.  Hurry- 
ing thither,  the  barbarians  cut  down  every  one  of  the  suppliants ; 
and  Xerxes,  now  lord  of  Athens,  forthwith  sent  a  horseman  to 
Sousa  with  the  news.  The  streets  of  that  royal  city  rang  with 
shouts  of  joy  when  the  tidings  became  known,  and  were  strewn 
with  myrtle  branches.  The  fears  of  Artabanus  were  falsified,  and 
the  harems  of  the  king  and  his  nobles  could  now  await  patiently 
the  coming  of  the  Spartan  and  Athenian  maidens  whom  Atossa 
had  wished  to  make  her  slaves. 

In  revenge  for  the  burning  of  the  temple  at  Sardis  the  temples 
on  the  Acropolis  were  set  on  fire ;  but  the  Athenian  exiles  who  had 
returned  with  him  from  Sousa  were  commanded  by  Xerxes  to  make 
their  peace  with  Athene.     Two  days  only  had  passed  since  the  rock 


6o  GREAT    BATTLES    OF   ALL   NATIONS 

was  taken ;  but  in  the  meantime  the  scorched  stem  of  her  sacred 
oKve-tree  was  seen,  it  is  said,  by  these  exiles,  when  they  came  to 
offer  sacrifice,  to  have  thrown  up  a  shoot  of  a  cubit's  height.  If 
the  Pisistratidae  chose  to  see  in  this  marvel  a  sign  of  the  greeting 
with  which  Athene  welcomed  them  home,  the  Athenians  drew 
from  it  a  different  lesson.  Some  encouragement  they  assuredly 
needed.  The  confederate  fleet  had  been  stationed  at  Salamis 
rather  to  cover  the  migration  of  the  Athenians  than  with  any 
purpose  of  making  it  a  naval  station ;  and  the  news  of  the  taking 
of  Athens  determined  the  allies  to  retreat  to  the  isthmus,  where 
in  case  of  defeat  by  sea  they  could  fall  back  on  the  help  of  the  land 
force.  One  man  alone  felt  this  decision  must  be  fatal.  Thessaly, 
Boeotia  and  Attica  had  been  allowed  to  fall  successivel)'  into  the 
enemy's  hand,  under  the  plea  that  prudence  demanded  a  retreat 
to  the  south  or  the  west.  "What  pledge  could  the  Athenians  have 
that  the  occupation  of  the  isthmus  would  be  followed  by  greater 
harmony  of  counsels  or  greater  resolution  of  purpose?  Convinced 
that  the  abandonment  of  Salamis  would  be  a  virtual  confession 
that  common  action  could  no  more  be  looked  for,  Themistocles  re- 
solved that  by  fair  means  or  by  foul  he  would  not  allow  this  further 
retreat  to  be  carried  out.  Having  prevailed  on  Eurybiades  to  sum- 
mon a  second  council,  he  was  hastening,  it  is  said,  to  address  the 
assembly  without  waiting  for  the  formal  opening  of  the  debate, 
when  the  Corinthian  Adimantus  reminded  him  sharply  that  they 
who  in  the  games  rise  before  the  signal  are  beaten.  "Yes,"  said 
Themistocles  gently;  "but  those  who  do  not  rise  when  the  signal 
is  given  are  not  crowned."  Then,  turning  to  Eurybiades,  he 
warned  him  that  at  the  isthmus  they  would  have  to  fight  in  the 
open  sea,  to  the  great  disadvantage  of  their  fewer  and  heavier 
ships,  while  a  combat  in  the  closed  waters  of  Salamis  would  prob- 
ably end  in  victory.  At  this  point  Adimantus,  again  breaking  in 
upon  his  speech,  told  him  rudely  that,  as  since  the  fall  of  Athens 
he  had  no  country,  he  could  have  no  vote  in  the  council,  and  that 
thus  Eurj^biades  was  debarred  from  even  taking  his  opinion.  The 
speech  was  a  strange  one  to  come  from  a  man  who  had  taken  a 
l)ribe  from  the  speaker;  nor  is  it  easy  to  see  why,  "^Wth  more  than 
twenty  Euboean  talents  still  in  his  possession,  Themistocles  had  not 


THE    BATTLE    OF   SALAMIS  6i 

again  tried  the  effect  of  gold  on  the  Corinthian  leader  befcre  the 
council  began.  Telling  Adimantus  quietly  that  he  had  a  better 
city  than  Corinth,  so  long  as  the  Athenians  had  two  hundred  ships, 
Themistocles  contented  himself  with  warning  Eurybiades  plainly 
that,  if  the  allies  abandoned  Salamis,  their  ships  would  convey  the 
Athenians  and  their  families  to  Italy,  where  they  would  find  a 
home  in  their  own  city  of  Siris.  The  Spartan  leader  saw  at  once 
that  without  the  Athenians  the  Peloponnesians  would  be  at  the 
mercy  of  the  enemy,  and  gave  orders  for  remaining.  But  the 
formal  obedience  of  the  allies  could  not  kill  their  fears;  and  when, 
on  the  following  day,  after  an  earthquake  by  sea  and  land,  they 
saw  the  Persian  fleet  manifestly  preparing  for  battle,  their  discon- 
tent broke  out  into  murmurs  which  made  it  clear  that  Eurybiades 
must  give  way.  "Without  losing  a  moment,  Themistocles  left  the 
council,  and  sent  Sicinnus,  his  slave,  and  the  tutor  of  his  children, 
in  a  boat  to  the  Persian  fleet,  bidding  him  tell  the  king  that  The- 
mistocles desired  the  victory  not  of  the  Greeks,  but  of  the  Persians, 
that  the  Greeks  were  on  the  point  of  running  away,  and  that  in 
their  present  state  of  dismay  they  could  be  taken  and  crushed  with 
little  trouble.  The  Persians  at  once  landed  a  large  force  on  the 
island  of  Psyttalia,  precisely  opposite  to  the  harbor  of  Piraeus,  for 
the  purpose  of  saving  the  wrecks  of  ships,  and  slaying  such  of  the 
enemy  as  might  be  driven  thither.  Toward  midnight  a  portion  of 
their  fleet  began  to  move  along  the  Attic  coast  until  the  line  ex- 
tended to  the  northeastern  promontory  of  Salamis,  thus  making  it 
impossible  for  the  Greeks  to  retreat  to  the  isthmus  without  fight- 
ing. The  leaders  of  the  latter  were  spending  the  night  in  fierce 
discussion,  when  Themistocles,  summoned  from  the  council,  found 
his  banished  rival  Aristides  waiting  to  tell  him  that  they  were  now 
surrounded  beyond  all  possibility  of  escape.  In  few  words  The- 
mistocles informed  him  that  the  arrangement  had  been  brought 
about  by  himself.  The  arrival  of  a  Tenian  ship,  deserting  from 
the  Persian  fleet,  confirmed  the  news  to  which,  as  it  came  from  the 
lips  even  of  Aristides,  they  were  disposed  to  give  little  credit.  Once 
more  they  made  ready  to  fight ;  and  as  the  day  dawned,  Themis- 
tocles addressed  not  the  chiefs,  but  the  crews,  laying  before  them 
all  the  lofty  and  mean  motives  by  which  men  may  be  stimulated 


62  GREAT   BATTLES    OF   ALL   NATIONS 

to  action,  and,  beseeching  them  to  choose  the  higher,  sent  them  to 
their  ships. 

Early  in  the  morning  the  Persian  king  took  his  seat  on  the 
great  throne  raised  for  him  on  a  spur  of  Mount  Egaleus,  to  see 
how  his  slaves  fought  on  his  behalf.  The  day  was  yet  young 
when  the  Greeks  put  out  to  sea  and  the  barbarians  advanced  to 
meet  them.  According  to  the  Eginetan  tradition,  a  trireme  sent 
to  their  island,  to  beseech  the  aid  of  the  hero  Eacus  and  his  chil- 
dren, began  the  conflict  after  some  hesitation,  the  form  of  a  woman 
having  been  seen  which  cried  out  with  a  voice  heard  by  all  the 
Greeks,  "GTood  men,  how  long  will  ye  back  water?"  In  the  battle 
the  Athenians  found  themselves  opposed  to  the  Phoenicians,  who 
had  the  wing  toward  Eleusis,  and  the  west,  while  the  lonians  to- 
ward the  east  and  the  Pirsseus  faced  the  Peloponnesians.  Beyond 
this  general  arrangement  and  the  issue  of  the  fight,  the  histo- 
rian himself  admits  that  of  this  memorable  battle  he  knew  prac- 
tically nothing.  The  issue,  in  his  belief,  was  determined  by  the 
discipline  and  order  of  the  Greeks ;  but  it  may  have  depended  in 
part  on  the  fact  that  the  Persian  seamen  had  been  working  all 
night,  while  the  Athenians  and  their  allies  went  on  board  their 
ships  in  the  morning  fresh  from  sleep  and  stirred  by  the  vehement 
eloquence  of  Themistocles.  But  it  is  especially  noted  that  the  Per- 
sian forces  fought  far  more  bravely  at  Salamis  than  at  Artemisiimi, 
and  that  few  of  the  lonians  in  the  service  of  Xerxes  hung  back 
from  the  fight — a  fact  which  would  seem  to  show  that  the  desertion 
of  the  Spartans  and  Athenians  in  the  revolt  of  Aristagoras  still  ran- 
kled in  their  minds.  On  the  other  hand,  there  was  a  tradition  that 
in  the  course  of  the  battle  the  Phoenicians  charged  the  lonians  with 
destroying  the  Phoenician  ships  and  betraying  their  crews.  Hap- 
pily for  the  accused,  an  exploit  performed  by  the  Greeks  of  a  Samo- 
Thracian  vessel  in  the  service  of  Xerxes  gave  instant  and  conclu- 
sive proof  of  their  fidelity,  and  Xerxes  in  a  towering  rage  gave 
command  that  the  heads  of  the  Phoenicians  should  be  struck  off. 
If  the  charge  was  really  made,  the  character  of  the  Phoenician 
seamen  may  fairly  be  taken  as  proof  that  it  was  not  altogether 
groundless.  So  strangely  contradictory  are  the  traditions  related 
of  the  same  event :  but  in  some  instances  the  inconsistency  explains 


THE    BATTLE    OF   SALAMIS  63 

itseK.  According  to  the  Athenians,  Adimantus,  the  Dauntless  (for 
such  is  the  meaning  of  his  name),  fled  in  terror  at  the  very  begin- 
ning of  the  tight,  followed  by  his  countrymen,  and  they  were  al- 
ready well  on  their  way  when  a  boat,  which  no  one  was  known  to 
have  sent,  met  them,  and  the  men  in  it  cried  out,  "So,  Adimantus, 
thou  hast  basely  forsaken  the  Greeks,  who  are  now  conquering 
their  enemies  as  much  as  they  had  ever  hoped  to  do. ' '  Adimantus 
would  not  beHeve  it ;  but  when  the  men  said  that  they  would  go 
back  with  him  and  die  if  they  should  be  found  to  have  spoken 
falsely,  he  turned  his  ship  and  reached  the  scene  of  action  when 
the  issue  of  the  fight  was  already  decided.  This  story  the  Corin- 
thians met  with  the  stout  assertion  that  they  were  among  the  fore- 
most in  the  battle;  and  it  is  added  that  their  rejoinder  was  borne 
out  by  all  the  rest  of  the  Greeks.  Of  the  two  tales  both  may  be 
false,  one  only  can  be  true. 

But,  as  at  Marathon,  whatever  may  have  been  the  incidents  of 
the  battle,  the  issue  was  clear  enough.  The  Persian  fleet  was 
ruined.  Among  the  slain  was  the  Persian  admiral,  a  brother  of 
Xerxes :  on  the  Greek  side  the  loss  was  small.  The  Persians,  we 
are  told,  were,  for  the  most  part,  unable  to  swim,  and  the  greatest 
slaughter  was  owing  to  the  confusion  which  followed  the  first  at- 
tempts at  flight.  In  the  midst  of  this  fearful  disorder,  Aristides 
landed  a  large  body  of  hoplites  on  the  islet  of  Psyttalia  and 
slaughtered  every  one  of  its  occupants.  The  Greeks  drew  up 
their  disabled  ships  on  the  shore  of  Salamis,  and  made  ready  for 
another  fight,  thinking  that  the  king  would  order  his  remaining 
ships  to  advance  against  them.  But  their  fears  were  not  to  be 
realized.  Xerxes  had  ascended  his  throne  in  the  morning  with 
the  conviction  that  under  his  eye  his  seamen  would  be  invincible : 
their  defeat  made  him  jump  to  the  conclusion  that  they  were  abso- 
lutely worthless ;  and  if  it  be  true,  as  one  storj'  ran,  that  during 
the  night  which  followed  the  battle  the  Phoenicians,  dreading  his 
wrath,  sailed  away  to  Asia,  he  had  sufficient  reason  for  discourage- 
ment. "Without  these  hardy  mariners  the  idea  of  carrying  on  the 
war  by  sea  became  absurd ;  and  for  the  ships  which  yet  remained 
to  him  he  had  a  more  pressing  and  immediate  task  in  guarding  the 
bridge  across  the  Hellespont.     The  safety  of  this  bridge  he  pro- 


64  GREAT    BATTLES    OF   ALL    NATIONS 

fessed  to  regard  as  the  condition  of  his  own  return  home;  and 
although  he  ordered  that  a  mole  should  be  carried  from  Attica  to 
Salamis,  Mardonius  was  not  to  be  tricked  by  commands  which 
deceived  others.  He  knew  that  the  messenger  had  set  out  with 
the  tidings,  which,  handed  on  from  one  horseman  to  another,  until 
they  reached  the  gates  of  Sousa,  were  to  turn  the  shouts  and  songs 
of  triumph  to  cries  of  grief  for  the  king,  and  of  indignation  against 
himself  as  the  stirrer-up  of  the  mischief.  But  if  he  thus  knew  that 
except  as  a  conqueror  he  could  never  hope  to  see  Persia  again,  he 
may  well  have  thought  that  his  own  chances  of  success  would 
be  vastly  increased  by  the  departure  of  a  craven  monarch  who 
flung  up  his  hands  in  despair  while  he  yet  had  ample  means  for 
retrieving  his  disasters.  He  knew  well  with  what  material  Cyrus 
had  achieved  his  conquests ;  and  with  a  proud  satisfaction  he  in- 
sisted that  the  Persians  had  everywhere  maintained  their  old  repu- 
tation, and  that,  if  they  had  failed,  their  failure  was  to  be  set  down 
to  the  rabble  which  had  hindered  and  clogged  their  efforts.  He 
had  therefore  no  hesitation  in  pledging  himself  to  achieve  the  con- 
quest of  Hellas,  if  Xerxes  would  leave  him  behind  with  three 
hundred  thousand  men. 

Such  a  proposal  would  come  as  a  godsend  to  a  tyrant  quaking 
in  abject  terror;  but  we  are  told  by  Herodotus  that  he  submitted 
it  to  the  only  woman  who  had  accompanied  him  as  the  sovereign 
of  a  dependent  city — Artemisia,  the  queen  of  Halicarnassus,  the 
birthplace  of  the  historian  Herodotus.  Her  conclusion  agreed  with 
his  own.  His  safe  return  to  Sousa  was  the  one  matter  of  para- 
mount importance ;  and  if  Mardonius  and  his  men  were  all  killed, 
it  would  be  but  the  loss  of  a  horde  of  useless  slaves.  Whatever 
may  have  been  her  advice,  there  can  be  not  the  least  doubt  that 
she  never  gave  this  reason  for  it.  Xerxes  knew  well,  as  she  must 
have  known  herself,  that,  in  leaving  with  Mardonius  his  native 
Persian  troops,  he  was  leaving  behind  iiim  the  hardy  soldiers  on 
whom  the  very  foundations  of  his  empire  rested;  and  the  tale 
throws  doubt  on  the  narrative  of  some  other  scenes  in  which  she 
appears  as  an  actor.  If  in  the  council  which  preceded  the  battle 
of  Salamis  she  raised  her  voice  against  all  active  operations  by  sea, 
she  was  opposing  herself  to  the  temper  of  the  king  as  strongly  as 


THE    BATTLE    OF   SALAMIS  65 

after  the  fight  she  encouraged  him  in  his  determination  to  retreat. 
If  she  rested  her  advice  on  the  opinion  that  the  Egyptians  and 
Pamphyhans  were,  Hke  the  rest  of  his  seamen,  evil  servants  of  a 
good  man,  her  words  were  not  merely  disparaging,  but  even  insult- 
ing, to  those  who  heard  them,  and  at  the  time  actually  unjust. 
Another  tradition  is  even  more  perplexing,  which  relates  that  dur- 
ing the  battle  of  Salamis  her  ship  was  chased  by  an  Athenian 
captain  who  was  anxious  to  get  the  prize  of  ten  thousand  drachmas 
promised  to  the  man  who  should  take  her  alive — so  great,  we  are 
told,  being  their  ritation  of  the  Greeks  that  a  woman  should  come 
against  Athens;  that  Artemisia,  having  before  her  only  ships  of 
her  own  side,  ran  into  a  Calyndian  vessel  and  sank  it ;  that  there- 
upon her  pursuer,  thinking  that  her  ship  was  a  Greek  one,  or  that 
she  was  deserting  from  the  Persians,  turned  away  to  chase  others; 
and  that  Xerxes,  hearing  that  Artemisia  had  sunk  a  Greek  ship, 
cried  out,  "My  men  are  women,  and  the  women  men." 

In  fact,  from  the  moment  of  the  defeat  at  Salamis  to  the  hour 
when  Xerxes  entered  Sardis,  the  popular  tradition  runs  riot  in  fic- 
tions all  tending  to  glorify  the  Greeks,  and  to  show  the  utter 
humiliation  and  miserable  cowardice  of  the  Persian  king.  The 
general  course  of  events  is  clear  enough;  nor  is  it  a  specially  diffi- 
cult task  to  disentangle  such  incidents  as  are  historical.  The  dis- 
covery of  the  flight  of  the  Persian  fleet  was  followed  by  immediate 
pursuit;  but  the  Greeks  sailed  as  far  as  Andrus  without  seeing 
even  the  hindermost  of  the  retreating  ships.  At  Andrus  a  council 
was  called,  and  an  order  was  given  for  abandoning  the  chase.  The 
tradition  of  a  later  day  averred  that  Themistocles  vehemently  urged 
the  allies  to  sail  straight  to  the  Hellespont  and  destroy  the  bridge 
by  which  Xerxes  was  to  cross  into  Asia,  and  that  he  was  dissuaded 
only  when  Eurybiades  pointed  out  the  foil}-  of  trying  to  keep  the 
Persian  king  in  a  country  where  despair  might  make  him  formida- 
ble, whereas  out  of  Europe  he  could  do  no  mischief.  The  same  or 
another  tale  also  related  that,  being  thus  balked  in  his  plans,  The- 
mistocles resolved  on  winning  the  goodwill  of  the  tyrant  by  send- 
ing Sicinnus,  as  the  bearer  of'  a  second  message,  to  tell  him  that 
after  great  efforts  he  had  succeeded  in  diverting  the  Greeks  from 
their  determination  to  hurry  to  the  Hellespont  and  there  destroy 
C— Vol.  I. 


66  GREAT   BATTLES    OF   ALL    NATIONS 


/ 


the  bridge.  The  story  has  a  direct  bearing  on  the  disastrous  sequel 
of  his  history;  but  apart  from  such  considerations,  the  degree  of 
faith  which  Xerxes  would  be  likely  to  put  in  this  second  message 
may  be  measured  by  the  caution  of  the  child  who  has  learned  to 
dread  the  fire  by  being  burned.  Xerxes  had  already  acted  on  one 
message  from  Themistocles,  and  the  result  had  been  the  ruin  of 
his  fleet.  Any  second  message  he  would  assuredly  interpret  by 
contraries ;  for  the  memory  of  the  first  deadly  wrong  would  b'^  fixed 
in  his  mind  with  a  strength  which  no  lapse  of  time  could  weaken. 
Still  more  particularly  must  we  mark  that  the  idea  of  cutting  off 
the  retreat  of  Xerxes  is  one  which  could  not  even  have  entered  the 
mind  of  Themistocles,  so  long  as  Mardonius  with  thirty  myriads 
of  men  remained  on  the  soil  of  Attica  to  carry  out  the  work  which 
his  master  had  abandoned.  To  divert  the  strength  of  Athens  for 
the  sake  of  intercepting  a  miserable  fugitive,  and  so  to  leave  the 
aUies  powerless  against  an  overwhelming  foe,  would  be  an  act  of 
mere  madness;  and  as  no  charge  of  folly  has  been  so  much  as 
urged  against  Themistocles,  it  follows  that  no  such  plan  was 
proposed  by  him,  and  therefore  that  it  could  not  be  rejected  by 
Eurybiades. 

A  few  days  later  Mardonius  chose  out  on  the  plains  of  Thessaly 
the  forces  with  which  he  had  resolved  to  conquer  or  to  die.  But 
before  he  parted  from  his  master,  a  messenger  came  from  Sparta, 
it  is  said,  to  bid  the  king  of  the  Medes  stand  his  trial  for  the  mur- 
der of  Leonidas,  and  make  atonement  for  that  crime.  "The  atone- 
ment shall  be  made  by  Mardonius, ' '  answered  Xerxes  with  a  laugh, 
pointing  to  the  general  by  his  side.  Thus  was  the  victim  marked 
out  for  the  sacrifice.  The  great  king  had  been  told  that  he  was  a 
criminal,  and  that  the  price  of  his  crime  must  be  paid ;  and  the 
summons  of  the  Spartan  is  therefore  followed  by  a  plunge  into 
utter  misery.  For  five-and-forty  days,  we  are  told,  the  army  of 
Xerxes  struggled  onward  over  their  road  to  the  Hellespont,  thou- 
sands upon  thousands  falling  as  they  went  from  hunger,  thirst, 
disease,  and  cold.  A  few  might  live  on  the  harvests  of  the  lands 
through  which  they  passed ;  the  rest  were  driven  to  feed  on  grass 
or  the  leaves  and  bark  of  trees,  and  disease  followed  in  the  track 
©f  famine.     Eight  months  after  Xerxes  had  crossed  the  Helles- 


THE   SIEGE    OF   SYRACUSE  6; 

pont  into  Europe  boats  conveyed  him  across  the  strait,  with  the 
scanty  remnant  of  his  guards  and  followers,  whose  numbers  were 
now  still  more  thinned  by  the  sudden  change  from  starvation  to 
plentj*.  Such  is  the  tale  which  Herodotus  gives  as  the  true  account 
of  his  invasion  and  retreat.  [Coxe. 


CHAPTER    III 
THE   SIEGE   OF   SYRACUSE 

THE  DEFEAT  OF  ATHENS  AND  THE  PASSING  OF    HER  SWAY 

413  B.  C. 

FEW  cities  have  undergone  more  memorable  sieges  during 
ancient  and  medieval  times  than  has  the  city  of  Syracuse. 
Athenian,  Carthaginian,  Roman,  Vandal,  Byzantine,  Sara- 
cen, and  Norman,  have  in  turns  beleaguered  her  walls;  and  the 
resistance  which  she  successfully  opposed  to  some  of  her  early  as- 
sailants was  of  the  deepest  importance  not  only  to  the  fortunes  of 
the  generations  then  in  being,  but  to  all  the  subsequent  current 
of  human  events  To  adopt  the  eloquent  expressions  of  Arnold 
respecting  the  check  which  she  gave  to  the  Carthaginian  arms, 
"Syracuse  was  a  breakwater  which  God's  providence  raised  up 
to  protect  the  yet  immature  strength  of  Rome."  And  her  tri- 
umphant repulse  of  the  great  Athenian  expedition  against  her 
was  of  even  more  widespread  and  enduring  importance.  It  forms 
a  decisive  epoch  in  the  strife  for  universal  empire,  in  which  all  the 
great  states  of  antiquity  successively  engaged  and  failed. 

The  present  city  of  Syracuse  is  a  place  of  little  or  no  military 
strength,  as  the  fire  of  artillery  from  the  neighboring  heights  would 
almost  completely  command  it.  But  in  ancient  warfare,  its  posi- 
tion, and  the  care  bestowed  on  its  walls,  rendered  it  formidably 
strong  against  the  means  of  ofifense  which  then  were  employed  by 
besieging  armies. 


68  GREAT    BATTLES    OF    ALL   NATIONS 

The  ancient  cit}',  in  its  most  prosperous  times,  was  chiefly  built 
on  the  knob  of  land  which  projects  into  the  sea  on  the  eastern  coast 
of  Sicily,  between  two  bays ;  one  of  which,  to  the  north,  was  called 
the  Bay  of  Thapsus,  while  the  southern  one  formed  the  great  har- 
bor of  the  city  of  Syracuse  itseK.  A  small  island,  or  peninsula  (for 
such  it  soon  was  rendered),  lies  at  the  southeastern  extremity  of 
this  knob  of  land,  stretching  almost  entirely  across  the  mouth  of 
the  great  harbor,  and  rendering  it  nearly  land-locked.  This  island 
comprised  the  original  settlement  of  the  first  Greek  colonists  from 
Corinth,  who  founded  Sj'^racuse  two  thousand  five  hundred  years 
ago;  and  the  modern  city  has  shrunk  again  into  these  primary 
hmits.  But,  in  the  fifth  century  before  our  era,  the  growing 
wealth  and  population  of  the  Syracusans  had  led  them  to  occujjy 
and  include  within  their  city  walls  portion  after  portion  of  the 
mainland  lying  next  to  the  little  isle ;  so  that,  at  the  time  of  the 
Athenian  expedition,  the  seaward  part  of  the  land  between  the  two 
bays  already  spoken  of  was  built  over,  and  fortified  from  bay  to 
bay,  and  constituted  the  larger  part  of  Syracuse. 

The  landward  wall,  therefore,  of  this  district  of  the  city,  tra- 
versed this  knob  of  land,  which  continues  to  slope  upward  from 
the  sea,  and  which,  to  the  west  of  the  old  fortifications  (that  is, 
toward  the  interior  of  Sicily),  rises  rapidly  for  a  mile  or  two,  but 
diminishes  in  width,  and  finally  terminates  in  a  long  narrow  ridge, 
between  which  and  Mount  Hybla  a  succession  of  chasms  and  un- 
even low  ground  extends.  On  each  flank  of  this  ridge  the  descent 
is  steep  and  precipitous  from  its  summits  to  the  strips  of  level  land 
that  lie  immediately  below  it,  both  to  the  southwest  and  northwest. 

The  usual  mode  of  assailing  fortified  towns  in  the  time  of  the 
Peloponnesian  war  was  to  build  a  double  wall  round  them,  suffi- 
ciently strong  to  check  any  sall}^  of  the  garrison  from  within,  of 
any  attack  of  a  relieving  force  from  "\vitliout.  The  interval  within 
the  two  walls  of  the  circumvallation  was  roofed  over,  and  formed 
barracks,  in  which  the  besiegers  posted  themselves,  and  awaited 
the  effects  of  want  or  treachery  among  the  besieged  in  producing 
a  surrender;  and,  in  every  Greek  city  of  those  daj^s,  as  in  ever}' 
Italian  republic  of  the  Middle  Ages,  the  rage  of  domestic  sedition 
between  aristocrats  and  democrats  ran  high.     Rancorous  refugees 


THE   SIEGE   OF  SYRACUSE  69 

swarmed  in  the  camp  of  every  invading  enemy;  and  every  bloek- 
la  city  wa.  sure  to  contain  .viti.in  its  wali«  a  body  ot  >r.„^n^g 
malcontents,  who  were  eager  to  purchase  a  party  tnnmph  at    lie 
expense  of  a  national  disaster.     Famine  and  faction  were  the  aihes 
on  whom  besiegers  rehed.     The  generals  of  that  time  trusted    o 
the  operation  of  these  sure  confederates  as  soon  as  they  could 
establish  a  complete  blockade.     They  rarely  ve.vtured  on  the  at- 
tempt  to  storm  any  fortified  post;  for  the  mihtary  engmes  of 
antiquity  were  feeble  in  breaching  masonry  before  the  mprove- 
ments  which  the  first  Dionysius  effected  in  the  mechamcs  of  de- 
struction, and  the  lives  of  spearmen  the  boldest  and  most  high- 
trained  would,  of  course,  have  been  idly  spent  in  charges  agamst 

unshattered  walls.  . 

A  city  built  close  to  the  sea,  like  Syracuse,  was  impregnable, 
save  by  the  combined  operations  of  a  superior  hostile  fleet  and  a 
superior  hostile  army;  and  Syracuse,  from  her  size,  her  population, 
and  her  military  and  naval  resources,  not  nmiaturally  thought  her- 
self  secure  from  finding  in  another  Greek  city  a  foe  capable  o 
sending  a  sufficient  armament  to  menace  her  with  capture  and 
subjection.     But  in  the  spring  of  414  B.C.,  the  Athenian  navy 
was  mi3tressof  her  harbor  and  the  adjacent  seas;   an  Athenian 
army  had  defeated  her  troops,  and  cooped  them  within  the  town ; 
and  from  bay  to  bay  a  blockading  wall  was  being  rapidly  carried 
across  the  strips  of  level  ground  and  the  high  ridge  outside  the 
city  (then  termed  Epipote),  which,  if  completed,  would  have  cut 
theSyracusansoff  from  all  succor  from  the  interior  of  Sicdy,  and 
have  left  them  at  the  mercy  of  the  Athenian  generals.     The  be- 
siegers' works  were,  indeed,  unfinished;  but  every  day  the  unforti- 
fied interval  in  their  lines  grew  narrower,  and  with  it  diminished 
all  apparent  hope  of  safety  for  the  beleaguered  town. 

Athens  was  now  staking  the  flower  of  her  forces,  and  the  accu- 
mulated fruits  of  seventy  years  of  glory,  on  one  bold  throw  for 
the  dominion  of  the  Western  world.  As  Napoleon  from  Monn 
Coeur  de  Lion  pointed  to  St.  Jean  d'Acre,  and  told  Ins  stafl:  tha 
th.  capture  of  that  town  would  decide  his  destiny  and  would 
change  the  face  of  the  world,  so  the  Athenian  officers,  from  lie 
heights  of  EpipoUe,  must  have  looked  on  Syracuse,  and  felt  that 


70  GREAT   BATTLES    OF  ALL   NATIONS 

with  its  fall  all  the  known  powers  of  the  earth  would  fall  beneath 
them.  They  must  have  felt  also  that  Athens,  if  repulsed  there, 
must  pause  forever  from  her  career  of  conquest,  and  sink  from  an 
imperial  republic  into  a  ruined  and  subservient  community. 

At  Marathon,  the  first  in  date  of  the  great  battles  of  the  world, 
we  beheld  Athens  struggling  for  self-preservation  against  the  in- 
vading armies  of  the  East.  At  Syracuse  she  appears  as  the  ambi- 
tious and  oppressive  invader  of  others.  In  her,  as  in  other  republics 
of  old  and  of  modern  times,  the  same  energy  that  had  inspired  the 
most  heroic  efforts  in  defense  of  the  national  independence,  soon 
learned  to  employ  itself  in  daring  and  unscrupulous  schemes  of 
self-aggrandizement  at  the  expense  of  neighboring  nations.  In 
the  interval  between  the  Persian  and  the  Peloponnesian  wars  she 
had  rapidly  grown  into  a  conquering  and  dominant  state,  the  chief 
of  a  thousand  tributary  cities,  and  the  mistress  of  the  largest  and 
best-manned  navy  that  the  Mediterranean  had  yet  beheld.  The 
occupations  of  her  territory  by  Xerxes  and  Mardonius,  in  the  sec- 
ond Persian  war,  had  forced  her  whole  population  to  become  mari- 
ners; and  the  glorious  results  of  that  struggle  confirmed  them  in 
th»ir  zeal  for  their  country's  service  at  sea.  The  voluntary  suf- 
frage of  the  Greek  cities  of  the  coasts  and  islands  of  the  ^gean 
first  placed  Athens  at  the  head  of  the  confederation  formed  for 
the  further  prosecution  of  the  war  against  Persia.  But  this  titu- 
lar ascendency  was  soon  converted  b}"  her  into  practical  and  arbi- 
trary dominion.  She  protected  them  from  piracy  and  the  Persian 
power,  which  soon  fell  into  decrepitude  and  decay,  but  she  exacted 
in  return  implicit  obedience  to  herself.  She  claimed  and  enforced 
a  prerogative  of  taxing  them  at  her  discretion,  and  proudly  refused 
to  be  accountable  for  her  mode  of  expending  their  supplies.  Re- 
monstrance against  her  assessments  was  treated  as  factious  dis- 
loyalty, and  refusal  to  pay  was  promptly  punished  as  revolt. 
Permitting  and  encouraging  her  subject  allies  to  furnish  aU  their 
contingents  in  money,  instead  of  part  consisting  of  ships  and  men, 
the  sovereign  repubhc  gained  the  double  object  of  training  her 
own  citizens  by  constant  and  well-paid  service  in  her  fleets,  and 
of  seeing  her  confederates  lose  their  skill  and  discipline  by  inaction, 
and  become  more  and  more  passive  and  powerless  under  her  yoke. 


THE   SIEGE   OF   SYRACUSE  71 

Their  towns  were  generally  dismantled,  while  the  imperial  city 
herself  was  fortified  with  the  greatest  care  and  sumptuousness ; 
the  accumulated  revenues  from  her  tributaries  serving  to  strengthen 
and  adorn  to  the  utmost  her  havens,  her  docks,  her  arsenals,  her 
theaters,  and  her  shrines,  and  to  array  her  in  that  plenitude  of 
architectural  magnificence,  the  ruins  of  which  still  attest  the  intel- 
lectual grandeur  of  the  age  and  people  which  produced  a  Pericles 
to  plan  and  a  Phidias  to  execute. 

All  republics  that  acquire  supremacy  over  other  nations  rule 
them  selfishly  and  oppressively.  There  is  no  exception  to  this  in 
either  ancient  or  modern  times.  Carthage,  Rome,  Venice,  Genoa, 
Florence,  Pisa,  Holland,  and  Repubhcan  France,  all  tyrannized 
over  every  province  and  subject  state  where  they  gained  aiithority. 
But  none  of  them  openly  avowed  their  system  of  doing  so  upon 
principle  with  the  candor  which  the  Athenian  republicans  displayed 
when  any  remonstrance  was  made  against  the  severe  exactions 
which  they  imposed  upon  their  vassal  alUes.  They  avowed  that 
their  empire  was  a  tyranny,  and  frankly  stated  that  they  solely 
trusted  to  force  and  terror  to  uphold  it.  They  appealed  to  what 
they  called  "the  eternal  law  of  nature,  that  the  weak  should  be 
coerced  by  the  strong."  Sometimes  they  stated,  and  not  without 
some  truth,  that  the  unjust  hatred  of  Sparta  against  themselves 
forced  them  to  be  unjust  to  others  in  self-defense.  To  be  safe, 
they  must  be  powerful ;  and  to  be  powerful,  they  must  plunder 
and  coerce  their  neighbors.  They  never  dreamed  of  communicat- 
ing any  franchise,  or  share  in  office,  to  their  dependents,  but  jeal- 
ously monopolized  every  post  of  command,  and  all  political  and 
judicial  power;  exposing  themselves  to  every  risk  with  unflinching 
gallantry ;  embarking  readily  in  every  ambitious  scheme ;  and  never 
suffering  difficulty  or  disaster  to  shake  their  tenacity  of  purpose : 
in  the  hope  of  acquiring  unbounded  empire  for  their  country,  and 
the  means  of  maintaining  each  of  the  thirty  thousand  citizens  who 
made  up  the  sovereign  republic,  in  exclusive  devotion  to  miHtary 
occupations,  and  to  those  brilliant  sciences  and  arts  in  which  Athens 
already  had  reached  the  meridian  of  intellectual  splendor. 

Her  great  political  dramatist  speaks  of  the  Athenian  empire  as 
comprehending  a  thousand  states.     The  language  of  the  stage  must 


72  GREAT   BATTLES   OF   ALL   NATIONS 

not  0?!  taken  too  literally ;  but  the  number  of  the  dependencies  of 
Athens,  at  the  time  when  the  Peloponnesian  confederacy  attacked 
her,  was  undoubtedly  very  great.  A\  ith  a  few  trifling  exceptions, 
all  the  islands  of  the  ^gean,  and  all  the  Greek  cities  which  in  that 
age  fringed  the  coasts  of  Asia  Minor,  the  Hellespont,  and  Thrace, 
paid  tribute  to  Athens,  and  impHcitly  obeyed  her  orders.  The 
^gean  Sea  was  an  Attic  lake.  Westward  of  Greece,  her  influ- 
ence, though  strong,  was  not  equally  predominant.  She  had  colo- 
nies and  allies  among  the  wealthy  and  populous  Greek  settlements 
in  Sicily  and  South  Italy,  but  she  had  no  organized  system  of  con- 
federates in  those  regions ;  and  her  galleys  brought  her  no  tribute 
from  the  Western  seas.  The  extension  of  her  empire  over  Sicily 
was  the  favorite  project  of  her  ambitious  orators  and  generals. 
While  her  great  statesman,  Pericles,  lived,  his  commanding  genius 
kept  his  countrymen  under  control,  and  forbade  them  to  risk  the 
fortunes  of  Athens  in  distant  enterprises,  while  they  had  unsub- 
dued and  powerful  enemies  at  their  own  doors.  He  taught  Athens 
thifi  maxim ;  but  he  also  taught  her  to  know  and  to  use  her  own 
strength,  and,  when  Pericles  had  departed,  the  bold  spirit  which 
he  had  fostered  overleaped  the  salutary  limits  which  he  had  pre- 
scribed. When  her  bitter  enemies,  the  Corinthians,  succeeded,  in 
431  B.C.,  in  inducing  Sparta  to  attack  her,  and  a  confederacy  was 
formed  of  five-sixths  of  the  continental  Greeks,  all  animated  by 
anxious  jealousy  and  bitter  hatred  of  Athens;  when  armies  far 
superior  in  numbers  and  equipment  to  those  which  had  marched 
against  the  Persians  were  poured  into  the  Athenian  territory,  and 
laid  it  waste  to  the  city  walls,  the  general  opinion  was  that  Athens 
would  be  reduced,  in  two  or  three  years  at  the  furthest,  to  submit 
to  the  requisitions  of  her  invaders.  But  her  strong  fortifications, 
by  which  she  was  girt  and  linked  to  her  principal  haven,  gave  her, 
in  those  ages,  almost  all  the  advantages  of  an  insular  position. 
Pericles  had  made  her  trust  to  her  empire  of  the  seas.  Every 
Athenian  in  those  days  was  a  practiced  seaman.  A  state,  indeed, 
whose  members,  of  an  age  fit  for  service,  at  no  time  exceeded  thirty 
thousand,  and  whose  territorial  extent  did  not  equal  half  Sussex, 
could  only  have  acquired  such  a  naval  dominion  as  Athens  once 
held,  by  devoting  and  zealcJusly  training  all  its  sons  to  service  in 


THE   SIEGE    OF    SYRACUSE  73 

its  fleets.  In  order  to  man  the  numerous  galleys  which  she  sent 
out,  she  necessarily  employed  large  numbers  of  hired  mariners  and 
slaves  at  the  oar ;  but  the  staple  of  her  crews  was  Athenian,  and 
all  posts  of  command  were  held  by  native  citizens.  It  was  by  re- 
minding them  of  this,  of  their  long  practice  in  seamanship,  and 
the  certain  superiority  which  their  discipline  gave  them  over  the 
enemy's  marine,  that  their  great  minister  mainly  encouraged  them 
to  resist  the  combined  power  of  Lacedaemon  and  her  allies.  He 
taught  them  that  Athens  might  thus  reap  the  fruit  of  her  zealous 
devotion  to  maritime  affairs  ever  since  the  invasion  of  the  Medes; 
"she  had  not,  indeed,  perfected  herself;  but  the  reward  of  her 
superior  training  was  the  rule  of  the  sea — a  mighty  dominion,  for 
it  gave  her  the  rule  of  much  fair  land  beyond  its  waves,  safe  from 
the  idle  ravages  with  which  the  Lacedaemonians  might  harass 
Attica,  but  never  could  subdue  Athens." 

Athens  accepted  the  war  with  which  her  enemies  threatened 
her  rather  than  descend  from  her  pride  of  place ;  and  though  the 
awful  visitation  of  the  plague  came  upon  her,  and  swept  away 
more  of  her  citizens  than  the  Dorian  spear  laid  low,  she  held  her 
own  gallantly  against  her  enemies.  If  the  Peloponnesian  armies 
in  irresistible  strength  wasted  every  spring  her  corn-lands,  her 
vineyards  and  her  olive  groves  with  fire  and  sword,  she  retaliated 
on  their  coasts  with  her  fleets ;  which,  if  resisted,  were  only  resisted 
to  display  the  pre-eminent  skill  and  bravery  of  her  seamen.  Some 
of  her  subject  allies  revolted,  but  the  revolts  were  in  general  sternly 
and  promptly  quelled.  The  genius  of  one  enemy  had  indeed  in- 
flicted blows  on  her  power  in  Thrace  which  she  was  unable  to  rem- 
edy ;  but  he  fell  in  battle  in  the  tenth  year  of  the  war,  and  with 
the  loss  of  Brasidas  the  Lacedaemonians  seemed  to  have  lost  all 
energy  and  judgment.  Both  sides  at  length  grew  weary  of  the 
war,  and  in  421  a  truce  for  fifty  years  was  concluded,  which, 
though  ill  kept,  and  though  many  of  the  confederates  of  Sparta 
refused  to  recognize  it,  and  hostilities  still  continued  in  many  parts 
of  Greece,  protected  the  Athenian  territory  from  the  ravages  of 
enemies,  and  enabled  Athens  to  accumulate  large  sums  out  of  the 
proceeds  of  her  annual  revenues.  So  also,  as  a  few  years  passed 
by,  the  havoc  which  the  pestilence  and  the  sword  had  made  in  her 


74  GREAT   BATTLES    OF    ALL   NATIONS 

population  was  repaired;  and  in  415  B.C.  Athens  was  full  of  bold 
and  restless  spirits,  who  longed  for  some  field  of  distant  enterprise 
wherein  they  might  signalize  themselves  and  aggrandize  the  state, 
and  who  looked  on  the  alarm  of  Spartan  hostihty  as  a  mere  old 
woman's  tale.  When  Sparta  had  wasted  their  territory  she  had 
done  her  worst ;  and  the  fact  of  its  always  being  in  her  power  to 
do  so  seemed  a  strong  reason  for  seeking  to  increase  the  trans- 
marine dominion  of  Athens. 

The  "West  was  now  the  quarter  toward  which  the  thoughts  of 
every  aspiring  Athenian  were  directed.  From  the  very  beginning 
of  the  war  Athens  had  kept  up  an  interest  in  Sicily,  and  her  squad- 
ron had,  from  time  to  time,  appeared  on  its  coasts  and  taken  part 
in  the  dissensions  in  which  the  Sicilian  Greeks  were  universally 
engaged  one  against  each  other.  There  were  plausible  grounds 
for  a  direct  quarrel,  and  an  open  attack  by  the  Athenians  upon 
Syracuse. 

With  the  capture  of  Syracuse,  all  Sicily,  it  was  hoped,  would 
be  secured.  Carthage  and  Italy  were  next  to  be  attacked.  With 
large  levies  of  Iberian  mercenaries  she  then  meant  to  overwhelm 
her  Peloponnesian  enemies.  The  Persian  monarchy  lay  in  hopeless 
imbecility,  inviting  Greek  invasion ;  nor  did  the  known  world  con- 
tain the  power  that  seemed  capable  of  checking  the  growing  might 
of  Athens,  if  Syracuse  once  could  be  hers. 

The  national  historian  of  Rome  has  left  us  an  episode  of  his 
great  work,  a  disquisition  on  the  probable  effects  that  would  have 
followed  if  Alexander  the  Great  had  invaded  Italy.  Posterity  has 
generally  regarded  that  disquisition  as  proving  Livy's  patriotism 
more  strongly  than  his  impartiality  or  acuteness.  Yet  right  or 
wrong,  the  speculations  of  the  Roman  writer  were  directed  to  the 
consideration  of  a  very  remote  possibility.  To  whatever  age  Alex- 
ander's life  might  have  been  prolonged,  the  East  would  have  fur- 
nished full  occupation  for  his  martial  ambition,  as  well  as  for  those 
schemes  of  commercial  grandeur  and  imperial  amalgamation  of 
nations  in  which  the  truly  great  qualities  of  his  mind  loved  to  dis- 
play themselves.  With  his  death  the  dismemberment  of  his  empire 
among  his  generals  was  certain,  even  as  the  dismemberment  of 
Napoleon's  empire  among  his  marshals  would  certainly  have  en- 


THE   SIEGE   OF   SYRACUSE  75 

sued  if  he  had  been  cut  off  in  the  zenith  of  his  power.  Rome,  also, 
was  far  weaker  when  the  Athenians  were  in  Sicily  tl.an  she  was  a 
century  afterward  in  Alexander's  time.  There  can  be  bttle  doub 
but  that  Rome  would  have  been  blotted  out  from  «-  "dependent 
powers  of  the  West,  had  she  been  attacked  at  the  end  of  the  fifth 
century  B.C.  by  an  Athenian  army,  largely  aided  by  Spanish  mer- 
cenaries, and  flushed  with  triumphs  over  Sicily  and  Africa,  instead 
of  the  eolUsion  between  her  and  Greece  having  been  deferred  until 
the  latter  had  sunk  into  decrepitude,  and  the  Roman  Mars  had 

grown  into  full  vigor.  , 

The  armament  which  the  Athenians  equipped  against  Syracuse 
was  in  every  way  worthy  of  the  state  which  formed  such  projects 
of  universal  empire,  and  it  has  been  truly  termed  "the  noblest  that 
ever  yet  had  been  sent  forth  by  a  free  and  civilized  commonwealth. 
The  fleet  consisted  of  one  hundred  and  thirty-four  war-galleys,  with 
a  multitude  of  store-ships.     A  powerful  force  of  the  best  heavy- 
armed  infantry  that  Athens  and  her  allies  could  furnish  was  sent 
on  board  it,  together  with  a  smaller  number  of  dingers  and  bow- 
men     The  quality  of  the  forces  was  even  more  remarkable  than 
the  number      The  zeal  of  individuals  vied  with  that  of  the  repubhc 
in  giving  every  galley  the  best  possible  crew,  and  every  troop  the 
most  perfect  accouterments.     And  with  private  as  well  as  pubhc 
wealth  eagerly  lavished  on  all  that  coidd  give  splendor  as  well  as 
efliciency  to  the  expedition,  the  fated  fleet  began  its  voyage  tor  the 
Sicilian  shores  in  the  summer  of  415. 

The  Syracusans  themselves,  at  the  time  of  the  Peloponnesian 
war  were  a  bold  and  turbulent  democracy,  tyrannizing  over  the 
weaker  Greek  cities  in  Sicily,  and  trying  to  gain  m  that  isla,nd 
the  same  arbitrary  supremacy  which  Athens  maintained  along  the 
eastern  coast  of  the  Mediterranean,  In  numbers  and  in  spmt  they 
were  fully  equal  to  the  Athenians,  but  far  inferior  to  them  m  mili- 
tary and  naval  discipline.  When  the  probability  of  an  Athenian 
invasion  was  first  pubHcly  discussed  at  Syracuse,  and  efforts  were 
made  by  some  of  the  wiser  citizens  to  improve  the  state  of  the  na- 
tional  defenses,  and  prepare  for  the  impending  danger,  the  rumors 
of  coming  war  and  the  proposal  for  preparation  were  received  by 
the  mass  of  the  Syracusans  with  scornful  incredulity.     The  speech 


76  GREAT   BATTLES    OF    ALL   NATIONS 

of  one  of  their  popular  orators  is  preserved  to  us  in  Thucydides, 
and  man}'  of  its  topics  might,  by  a  sHght  alteration  of  names  and 
details,  serve  admirably  for  the  party  among  ourselves  at  present, 
which  opposes  the  augmentation  of  our  forces,  and  derides  the  idea 
of  our  being  in  any  peril  from  the  sudden  attack  of  a  French  expe- 
dition. The  Sj'racusan  orator  told  his  countrymen  to  dismiss  with 
scorn  the  visionary-  terrors  which  a  set  of  designing  men  among 
themselves  strove  to  excite,  in  order  to  get  power  and  influence 
thrown  into  their  own  hands.  He  told  them  that  Athens  knew 
her  own  interest  too  well  to  think  of  wantonly  provoking  their  hos- 
tility: "Even  if  the  enemies  were  to  come,"  said  he,  "so  distant 
from  their  resources,  and  opposed  to  such  a  power  as  ours,  their 
destruction  would  be  easy  and  inevitable.  Their  ships  will  have 
enough  to  do  to  get  to  our  island  at  all,  and  to  carrj-  such  stores 
of  all  sorts  as  will  be  needed.  The}"  cannot  therefore  carry,  be- 
sides, an  army  large  enough  to  cope  with  such  a  population  as 
ours.  They  ^^'ill  have  no  fortified  place  from  which  to  commence 
their  operations,  but  must  rest  them  on  no  better  base  than  a  set 
of  wretched  tents,  and  such  means  as  the  necessities  of  the  moment 
will  allow  them.  But,  in  truth,  I  did  not  believe  that  they  would 
oven  be  able  to  effect  a  disembarkation.  Let  us,  therefore,  set  at 
naught  these  reports  as  altogether  of  home  manufacture;  and  be 
sure  that  if  any  enemy  does  come,  the  state  will  know  how  to 
defend  itself  in  a  manner  worthy  of  the  national  honor." 

Such  assertions  pleased  the  Syracusan  assembly,  and  their  coun- 
terparts find  favor  now  among  some  portion  of  the  English  public. 
But  the  invaders  of  Syracuse  came ;  made  good  their  landing  in 
Sicily ;  and,  if  they  had  j^romptly  attacked  the  city  itself,  instead 
of  wasting  nearly  a  year  in  desultorj-  operations  in  other  parts  of 
Sicily,  the  Syracusans  must  have  paid  the  penalty  of  their  self-suffi- 
cient carelessness  in  submission  to  the  Athenian  yoke.  But,  of  the 
three  generals  who  led  the  Athenian  exj^edition,  two  only  were 
men  of  ability,  and  one  was  most  weak  and  incompetent.  Fortu- 
nately for  Syracuse,  Alcibiades,  the  most  skillful  of  the  three,  was 
soon  deposed  from  his  command  by  a  factious  and  fanatic  vote  of 
his  fellow-countrymen,  and  the  other  competent  one,  Lamachus, 
fell  early  in  a  skirmish;   while,  more  fortunately  still  for  her,  the 


THE   SIEGE    OF   SYRACUSE  77 

feeble  and  vacillating  Nicias  remained  unrecalled  and  unhurt,  to 
assume  the  imdivided  leadership  of  the  Athenian  army  and  fleet, 
and  to  mar,  by  alternate  over-caution  and  over-carelessness,  every 
chance  of  success  which  the  early  part  of  the  operations  offered. 
Still,  even  under  him,  the  Athenians  nearly  won  the  town.  They 
defeated  the  raw  levies  of  the  Syracusans,  cooped  them  within  the 
walls,  and,  as  before  mentioned,  almost  effected  a  continuous  forti- 
fication from  bay  to  bay  over  Epipolse,  the  completion  of  which 
would  certainly  have  been  followed  by  a  capitulation. 

Alcibiades,  the  most  complete  example  of  genius  without  prin- 
ciple that  history  produces,  the  Bolingbroke  of  antiquity,  but  Avith 
high  military  talents  superadded  to  diplomatic  and  oratorical  pow- 
ers, on  being  summoned  home  from  his  command  in  Sicily  to  take 
his  trial  before  the  Athenian  tribunal,  had  escaped  to  Sparta,  and 
liad  exerted  himself  there  with  all  the  selfish  rancor  of  a  renegade 
to  renew  the  war  with  Athens,  and  to  send  instant  assistance  to 
Syracuse. 

"When  we  read  his  words  in  the  pages  of  Thucydides  (who  was 
himself  an  exile  from  Athens  at  this  period,  and  may  probably 
have  been  at  Sparta,  and  heard  Alcibiades  speak),  we  are  at  a  loss 
whether  most  to  admire  or  abhor  his  subtile  counsels.  After  an 
artful  exordium,  in  which  he  tried  to  disarm  the  suspicions  which 
he  felt  must  be  entertained  of  him,  and  to  point  out  to  the  Spartans 
how  completely  his  interests  and  theirs  were  identified,  through 
hatred  of  the  Athenian  democracy,  he  thus  proceeded : 

"Hear  me,  at  any  rate,  on  the  matters  Avhich  require  your  grave 
attention,  and  which  I,  from  the  personal  knowledge  that  I  have 
of  them,  can  and  ought  to  bring  before  you.  We  Athenians  sailed 
to  Sicily  with  the  design  of  subduing,  first  the  Greek  cities  there, 
and  next  those  in  Italy.  Then  we  intended  to  make  an  attempt 
on  the  dominions  of  Carthage,  and  on  Carthage  itself.  If  all  these 
projects  succeeded  (nor  did  we  limit  ourselves  to  them  in  these 
quarters),  we  intended  to  increase  our  fleet  with  the  inexhaustible 
supplies  of  ship  timber  which  Italy  affords,  to  put  in  requisition 
the  whole  military  force  of  the  conquered  Greek  states,  and  also 
to  hire  large  armies  of  the  barbarians,  of  the  Iberians,  and  others 
in  those  regions,  who  are  allowed  to  make  the  best  possible  soldiers. 


78  GREAT   BATTLES   OF   ALL   NATIONS 

Then,  when  we  had  done  all  this,  we  intended  to  assail  Pelopon- 
nesus with  our  collected  force.  Our  fleets  would  blockade  you  by 
sea,  and  desolate  your  coasts,  our  armies  would  be  landed  at  differ- 
ent points  and  assail  your  cities.  Some  of  these  we  expected  to 
storm,  and  others  we  meant  to  take  by  surrounding  them  with 
fortified  lines.  We  thought  that  it  would  thus  be  an  easy  matter 
thoroughlj^  to  war  you  down ;  and  then  we  should  become  the  mas- 
ters of  the  whole  Greek  race.  As  for  expense,  we  reckoned  that 
each  conquered  state  would  give  us  supplies  of  money  and  provis- 
ions sufficient  to  pay  for  its  own  conquest,  and  furnish  the  means 
for  the  conquest  of  its  neighbors. 

"Such  are  the  designs  of  the  present  Athenian  expedition  to 
Sicily,  and  you  have  heard  them  from  the  lips  of  the  man  who, 
of  all  men  living,  is  most  accurately  acquainted  with  them.  The 
other  Athenian  generals,  who  remain  with  the  expedition,  will 
endeavor  to  carry  out  these  plans.  And  be  sure  that  without  your 
speedy  interference  they  will  all  be  accomplished.  The  Sicilian 
Greeks  are  deficient  in  military  training ;  but  still,  if  they  could 
at  once  bo  brought  to  combine  in  an  organized  resistance  to  Athens, 
they  might  even  now  be  saved.  But  as  for  the  Syracusans  resist- 
ing Athens  by  themselves,  they  have  already,  with  the  whole 
strength  of  their  population,  fought  a  battle  and  been  beaten ;  they 
cannot  face  the  Athenia.ns  at  sea;  and  it  is  quite  impossible  for 
them  to  hold  out  against  the  force  of  their  invaders.  And  if  this 
city  falls  into  the  hands  of  the  Athenians,  all  Sicily  is  theirs,  and 
presently  Italy  also ;  and  the  danger,  which  I  warned  you  of  from 
that  quarter,  will  soon  fall  upon  yourselves.  You  must,  therefore, 
in  Sicily,  fight  for  the  safety  of  Peloponnesus.  Send  some  gallej'S 
thither  instantl}'.  Put  men  on  board  who  can  work  their  own  way 
over,  and  who,  as  soon  as  they  land,  can  do  duty  as  regular  troops. 
But,  above  all,  let  one  of  yourselves,  let  a  ^an  of  Sparta,  go  over 
to  take  the  chief  command,  to  bring  into  order  and  effective  disci- 
pline the  forces  that  are  in  Syracuse,  and  urge  those  who  at  present 
hang  back  to  come  forward  and  aid  the  Syracusans.  The  presence 
of  a  Spartan  general  at  this  crisis  will  do  more  to  save  the  city  than 
a  whole  araiy."  The  renegade  then  proceeded  to  urge  on  them  the 
necessity  of  encouraging  their  friends  in  Sicily,  by  showing  that 


THE   SIEGE   OF   SYRACUSE  79 

they  themselves  were  in  earnest  in  hostility  to  Athens.  He  exhorted 
them  not  only  to  march  their  armies  into  Attica  again,  but  to  take 
up  a  permanent  fortified  position  in  the  country;  and  he  gave  them 
in  detail  information  of  all  that  the  Athenians  most  dreaded,  and 
how  his  country  might  receive  the  most  distressing  and  enduring 
injury  at  their  hands. 

The  Spartans  resolved  to  act  on  his  advice,  and  appointed  Gylip- 
pus  to  the  Sicilian  command.     Gylippus  was  a  man  who,  to  the 
national  bravery  and  military  skiU  of  a  Spartan,  united  political 
sagacity  that  was  worthy  of  his  great  fellow-countryman  Brasidas; 
but  his  merits  were  debased  by  mean  and  sordid  vices;   and  his  is 
one  of  the  cases  in  which  history  has  been  austerely  just,  and  where 
little  or  no  fame  has  been  accorded  to  the  successful  but  venal  sol- 
dier.    But  for  the  purpose  for  which  he  was  required  in  Sicily,  an 
abler  man  could  not  have  been  found  in  Lacedaemon.     His  country 
gave  him  neither  men  nor  money,  but  she  gave  him  her  authority; 
and  the  influence  of  her  name  and  of  his  own  talents  was  speedily 
seen  in  the  zeal  with  which  the  Corinthians  and  other  Pelopon- 
nesian  Greeks  began  to  equip  a  squadron  to  act  under  him  for  the 
rescue  of  Sicily.     As  soon  as  four  galleys  were  ready,  he  hurried 
over  with  them  to  the  southern  coast  of  Italy,  and  there,  though 
he  received  such  evil  tidings  of  the  state  of  Syracuse  that  he  aban- 
doned all  hope  of  saving  that  city,  he  determined  to  remain  on  the 
coast,  and  do  what  he  could  in  preserving  the  Italian  cities  from 

the  Athenians. 

So  nearly,  indeed,  had  Nicias  completed  his  beleaguering  hues, 
and  so  utterly  desperate  had  the  state  of  Syracuse  seemingly  be- 
come, that  an  assembly  of  the  Syracusans  was  actually  convened, 
and  they  were  discussing  the  terms  on  which  they  should  offer  to 
capitulate,  when  a  galley  was  seen  dashing  into  the  great  harbor, 
and  making  her  way  toward  the  town  with  all  the  speed  which  her 
rowers  could  supply.     From  her  shunning  the  part  of  the  harbor 
where  the  Athenian  fleet  lay,  and  making  straight  for  the  Syra- 
cusan  side,  it  was  clear  that  she  was  a  friend;  the  enemy's  cruisers, 
careless  through  confidence  of  success,  made  no  attempt  to  cut  her 
off;  she  touched  the  beach,  and  a  Corinthian  captain,  springing  on 
shore  from  her,  was  eagerly  conducted  to  the  assembly  of  the  Syra- 


8o  GREAT    BATTLES    OF    ALL    NATIONS 

cusan  people  just  in  time  to  prevent  the  fatal  vote  being  put  for  a 
surrender. 

Providentially  for  Syracuse,  Gongylus,  the  commander  of  the 
galley,  had  been  prevented  by  an  Athenian  squadron  from  follow- 
ing Gylippus  to  South  Italy,  and  he  had  been  obliged  to  push  direct 
for  Syracuse  from  Greece. 

The  sight  of  actual  succor,  and  the  promise  of  more,  revived  the 
drooping  spirits  of  the  Syracusans.  They  felt  that  they  were  not 
left  desolate  to  perish,  and  the  tidings  that  a  Spartan  was  coming 
to  command  them  confirmed  their  resolution  to  continue  their  re- 
sistance. Gylippus  was  already  near  the  cit3\  He  had  learned 
at  Locri  that  the  first  report  which  had  reached  him  of  the  state 
of  Syracuse  was  exaggerated,  and  that  there  was  unfinished  space 
in  the  besiegers'  lines  through  which  it  was  barely  possible  to  intro- 
duce re-enforcements  into  the  town.  Crossing  the  Straits  of  Mes- 
sina, which  the  culpable  negligence  of  Nicias  had  left  unguarded, 
Gylippus  landed  on  the  northern  coast  of  Sicily,  and  there  began 
to  collect  from  the  Greek  cities  an  army,  of  which  the  regular 
troops  that  he  brought  from  Peloponnesus  formed  the  nucleus. 
Such  was  the  influence  of  the  name  of  Sparta,  and  such  were  his 
own  abilities  and  activity,  that  he  succeeded  in  raising  a  force  of 
about  two  thousand  fully-armed  infantr}-,  with  a  larger  number 
of  irregular  troops.  Nicias,  as  if  infatuated,  made  no  attempt  to 
counteract  his  operations,  nor,  when  Gylippus  marched  his  little 
army  toward  Syracuse,  did  the  Athenian  commander  endeavor  to 
check  him.  The  Syracusans  marched  out  to  meet  him ;  and  while 
the  Athenians  were  solely  intent  on  completing  their  fortifications 
on  the  southern  side  toward  the  harbor,  Gylippus  turned  their  posi- 
tion by  occupj'ing  the  high  ground  in  the  extreme  rear  of  Epipolae. 
He  then  marched  through  the  unfortified  interval  of  Nicias'  lines 
into  the  besieged  town,  and  joining  his  troops  with  the  Syracusan 
forces,  after  some  engagements  with  varying  success,  gained  the 
mastery  over  Nicias,  drove  the  Athenians  from  Epipola?,  and 
hemmed  them  into  a  disadvantageous  position  in  the  low  grounds 
near  the  groat  harbor. 

The  attention  of  all  Greece  was  now  fixed  on  Syracuse,  and 
every  enemy  of  Athens  felt  the  importance  of  the  opportunity  now 


THE   SIEGE   OF   SYRACUSE  8l 

offered  of  checking  her  ambition,  and,  perhaps,  of  striking  a  deadly 
blow  at  her  power.  Large  re-enforcements  from  Corinth,  Thebes 
and  other  cities  now  reached  the  Syracusans,  while  the  baffled  and 
dispirited  Athenian  general  earnestly  besought  his  countrymen  to 
recall  him,  and  represented  the  further  prosecution  of  tlie  siege  as 
hopeless. 

But  Athens  had  made  it  a  maxim  never  to  let  difficulty  or  dis- 
aster drive  her  back  from  any  enterprise  once  undertaken,  so  long 
as  she  possessed  the  means  of  making  any  effort,  however  desper- 
ate, for  its  accomplishment.  "With  indomitable  pertinacity,  she 
now  decreed,  instead  of  recalling  her  first  armament  from  before 
Syracuse,  to  send  out  a  second,  though  her  enemies  near  home  had 
now  renewed  open  warfare  against  her,  and  by  occupying  a  perma- 
nent fortification  in  her  territory  had  severely  distressed  her  popu- 
lation, and  were  pressing  her  with  almost  all  the  hardships  of  an 
actual  siege.  She  still  was  mistress  of  the  sea,  and  she  sent  forth 
another  fleet  of  seventy  galleys,  and  another  army,  which  seemed 
to  drain  almost  the  last  reserves  of  her  military  population,  to  try 
if  Syracuse  could  not  yet  be  won,  and  the  honor  of  the  Athenian 
arms  be  preserved  from  the  stigma  of  a  retreat.  Hers  was,  indeed, 
a  spirit  that  might  be  broken,  but  never  would  bend.  At  the  head 
of  this  second  expedition  she  wisely  placed  her  best  general,  De- 
mosthenes, one  of  the  most  distinguished  officers  that  the  long 
Peloponnesian  war  had  produced,  and  who,  if  he  had  originally 
held  the  Sicilian  command,  would  soon  have  brought  Syracuse  to 
submission. 

The  fame  of  Demosthenes  the  general  has  been  dimmed  by  the 
superior  luster  of  his  great  countryman,  Demosthenes  the  orator. 
When  the  name  of  Demosthenes  is  mentioned,  it  is  the  latter  alone 
that  is  thought  of.  The  soldier  has  found  no  biographer.  Yet  out 
of  the  long  hst  of  great  men  whom  the  Athenian  republic  produced, 
there  are  few  that  deserve  to  stand  higher  than  this  brave,  though 
finally  unsuccessful,  leader  of  her  fleets  and  armies  in  the  first  half 
of  the  Peloponnesian  war.  In  his  first  campaign  in  -lEtolia  he  had 
shown  some  of  the  rashness  of  youth,  and  had  received  a  lesson  of 
caution  by  which  he  profited  throughout  the  rest  of  his  career,  but 
without  losing  any  of  his  natural  energy  in  enterprise  or  in  exe= 


82  GREAT    BATTLES    OF   ALL   NATIONS 

cution.  He  had  performed  the  distinguished  ser\4ce  of  rescuing 
Naupactus  from  a  powerful  hostile  armament  in  the  seventh  year 
of  the  war ;  he  had  then,  at  the  request  of  the  Acarnanian  repubhcs, 
taken  on  himself  the  office  of  commander-in-chief  of  all  their  forces, 
and  at  their  head  he  had  gained  some  important  advantages  over 
the  enemies  of  Athens  in  Western  Greece.  His  most  celebrated 
exploits  had  been  the  occupation  of  Pylos  on  the  Messenian  coast, 
the  successful  defense  of  that  place  against  the  fleet  and  armies  of 
Lacedaemon,  and  the  subsequent  capture  of  the  Spartan  forces  on 
the  isle  of  Spliacteria,  which  was  the  severest  blow  dealt  to  Sparta 
throughout  the  war,  and  which  had  mainly  caused  her  to  humble 
herself  to  make  the  truce  with  Athens,  Demosthenes  was  as 
honorably  unknown  in  the  war  of  party  politics  at  Athens  as  he 
was  eminent  in  the  war  against  the  foreign  enemy.  We  read  of 
no  intrigues  of  his  on  either  the  aristocratic  or  democratic  side. 
He  was  neither  in  the  interest  of  Nicias  nor  of  Cleon.  His  private 
character  was  free  from  any  of  the  stains  which  polluted  that  of 
Alcibiades.  On  all  these  points  the  silence  of  the  comic  dramatist 
is  decisive  evidence  in  his  favor.  He  had  also  the  moral  courage, 
not  always  combined  with  physical,  of  seeking  to  do  his  duty  to 
his  country,  irrespective  of  any  odium  that  he  himself  might  incur, 
and  unhampered  by  any  petty  jealousy  of  those  who  were  associated 
with  him  in  command.  There  are  few  men  named  in  ancient  his- 
tory of  whom  posterity  would  gladly  know  more,  or  whom  we  sym- 
pathize with  more  deeply  in  the  calamities  that  befell  them,  than 
Demosthenes,  the  son  of  Alcisthenes,  who,  in  the  spring  of  the 
year  413  B.C.,  left  Pirajus  at  the  head  of  the  second  Athenian 
expedition  against  Sicily. 

His  arrival  was  critically  timed ;  for  Gylippus  had  encouraged 
the  Syracusans  to  attack  the  Athenians  under  Nicias  by  sea  as  well 
as  by  land,  and  by  one  able  stratagem  of  Ariston,  one  of  the  ad- 
mirals of  the  Corinthian  auxiliary  squadron,  the  Syracusans  and 
their  confederates  had  inflicted  on  the  fleet  of  Nicias  the  first  defeat 
that  the  Athenian  navy  had  ever  sustained  from  a  numericall}-  in- 
ferior enemy.  Gylippus  was  preparing  to  follow  up  his  advantage 
by  fresh  attacks  on  the  Athenians  on  both  elements,  when  the 
arrival  of  Demosthenes  completely  changed  the  aspect  of  affairs, 


THE   SIEGE   OF    SYRACUSE  83 

and  restored  the  superiority  to  the  invaders.  With  seventy-three 
war-galleys  in  the  highest  state  of  eflficiency,  and  brilliantly 
equipped,  with  a  force  of  five  thousand  picked  men  of  the  regu- 
lar infantry  of  Athens  and  her  allies,  and  a  still  larger  number  of 
bow-men,  javelin-men,  and  slingers  on  board,  Demosthenes  rowed 
round  the  great  harbor  with  loud  cheers  and  martial  music,  as  if 
in  defiance  of  the  Syracusans  and  their  confederates.  His  arrival 
had  indeed  changed  their  newly-born  hopes  into  the  deepest  con- 
sternation. The  resources  of  Athens  seemed  inexhaustible,  and 
resistance  to  her  hopeless.  They  had  been  told  that  she  was  re- 
duced to  the  last  extremities,  and  that  her  tcrritor}-  was  occupied 
^w  an  enemy;  and  yet  here  they  saw  her  sending  forth,  as  if  in 
prodigality  of  power,  a  second  armament  to  make  foreign  con- 
quests, not  inferior  to  that  with  which  Nicias  had  first  landed  on 
the  Sicilian  shores. 

With  the  intuitive  decision  of  a  great  commander,  Demosthenes 
at  once  saw  that  the  possession  of  Epipolas  was  the  key  to  the  pos- 
session of  Syracuse,  and  he  resolved  to  make  a  prompt  and  vigor- 
ous attempt  to  recover  that  position,  while  his  force  was  unim- 
paired, and  the  consternation  which  its  arrival  had  produced  among 
the  besieged  remained  unabated.  The  Syracusans  and  their  allies 
had  run  out  an  outwork  along  EpiiJoliB  from  the  city  walls,  inter- 
secting the  fortified  lines  of  circumvallation  which  Nicias  had  com- 
menced, but  from  which  he  had  been  driven  by  Gylippus.  Could 
Demosthenes  succeed  in  storming  this  outwork,  and  in  re-establish- 
ing the  Athenian  troops  on  the  high  ground,  he  might  fairly  hope 
to  be  able  to  resume  the  circumvallation  of  the  city,  and  become 
the  conqueror  of  Syracuse ;  for  when  once  the  besiegers'  lines  were 
completed,  the  number  of  the  troops  with  which  Gylippus  had  gar- 
risoned the  place  would  only  tend  to  exhaust  the  stores  of  provisions 
and  accelerate  its  downfall. 

An  easilj'-repelled  attack  was  first  made  on  the  outwork  in  the 
daytime,  probably  more  with  the  view  of  blinding  the  besieged  to 
the  nature  of  the  main  operations  than  with  any  expectation  of 
succeeding  in  an  open  assault,  with  every  disadvantage  of  the 
ground  to  contend  against.  But,  when  the  darkness  had  set  in, 
Demosthenes  formed  his  men  in  columns,  each  soldier  taking  with 


84  GREAT    BATTLES    OF    ALL    NATIONS 

him  five  days'  provisions,  and  the  engineers  and  workmen  of  the 
camp  following  the  troops  with  their  tools,  and  all  portable  imple- 
ments of  fortification,  so  as  at  once  to  secure  any  advantage  of 
groimd  that  the  army  might  gain.  Thus  equipped  and  prepared, 
he  led  his  men  along  by  the  foot  of  the  southern  flank  of  Epipolie, 
in  a  direction  toward  the  interior  of  the  island,  till  he  came  imme- 
diatelj^  below  the  narrow  ridge  that  forms  the  extremity  of  the 
high  ground  looking  westward.  He  then  wheeled  his  vanguard 
to  the  right,  sent  them  rapidly  up  the  paths  that  ^vind  along  the 
face  of  the  chff,  and  succeeded  in  completely  surprising  the  Syra- 
cusan  outposts,  and  in  placing  his  troops  fairly  on  the  extreme  sum- 
mit of  the  all-important  Epipok?.  Thence  the  Athenians  marched 
eagerly  down  the  slope  toward  the  town,  routing  some  Syracusan 
detachments  that  were  quartered  in  their  way,  and  vigorously  as- 
sailing the  unprotected  side  of  the  outwork.  All  at  first  favored 
them.  The  outwork  was  abandoned  by  its  garrison,  and  the  Athe- 
nian engineers  began  to  dismantle  it.  In  vain  Gylippus  brought 
up  fresh  troops  to  check  the  assault;  the  Athenians  broke  and 
drove  them  back,  and  continued  to  press  hotly  forward,  in  the  full 
confidence  of  victory.  But,  amid  the  general  consternation  of  the 
Syracusans  and  their  confederates,  one  body  of  infantry  stood  firm. 
This  was  a  brigade  of  their  Boe<^tian  allies,  which  was  posted  low 
down  the  slope  of  Epipola?,  outside  the  city  walls.  Coolly  and 
steadily  the  Boeotian  infantry  formed  their  hne,  and,  undismaj-ed 
by  the  current  of  flight  around  them,  advanced  against  the  advanc- 
ing Athenians.  This  was  the  crisis  of  the  battle.  But  the  Athe- 
nian van  was  disorganized  by  its  own  previous  successes;  and, 
jnelding  to  the  unexpected  charge  thus  made  on  it  by  troops  in 
perfect  order,  and  of  the  most  obstinate  courage,  it  was  driven 
back  in  confusion  upon  the  other  divisions  of  the  army  that  still 
continued  to  press  forward.  When  once  the  tide  was  thus  turned, 
the  Syracusans  passed  rapidly  from  the  extreme  of  panic  to  the 
extreme  of  vengeful  daring,  and  with  all  their  forces  they  now 
fiercely  assailed  the  embarrassed  and  receding  Athenians.  In  vain 
did  the  officers  of  the  latter  strive  to  re-form  their  line.  Amid  the 
din  and  the  shouting  of  the  fight,  and  the  confusion  inseparable 
upon  a  night  engagement,  especially  one  where  many  thousand 


THE   SIEGE    OF   SYRACUSE  85 

combatants  were  pent  and  whirled  together  in  a  narrow  and  un- 
even area,  the  necessary  maneuvers  were  impracticable ;  and  though 
many  companies  still  fought  on  desperately,  wherever  the  moon- 
light showed  them  the  semblance  of  a  foe,  they  fought  without 
concert  or  subordination;  and  not  infrequently,  amid  the  deadly 
chaos,  Athenian  troops  assailed  each  other.  Keeping  their  ranks 
close,  the  Syracusans  and  their  allies  pressed  on  against  the  dis- 
organized masses  of  the  besiegers,  and  at  length  drove  them,  with 
heavy  slaughter,  over  the  cliffs,  which  an  hour  or  two  before  they 
had  scaled  full  of  hope,  and  apparently  certain  of  success. 

This  defeat  was  decisive  of  the  event  of  the  siege.  The  Athe- 
nians afterward  struggled  only  to  protect  themselves  from  the 
vengeance  which  the  Sj'racusans  sought  to  wrealr  in  the  complete 
destruction  of  their  invaders.  Never,  however,  was  vengeance 
more  complete  and  terrible.  A  series  of  sea-fights  followed,  in 
which  the  Athenian  galleys  were  utterly  destroyed  or  captured. 
The  mariners  and  soldiers  who  escaped  death  in  disastrous  engage- 
ments, and  a  vain  attempt  to  force  a  retreat  into  the  interior  of  the 
island,  became  prisoners  of  war.  Nicias  and  Demosthenes  were 
put  to  death  in  cold  blood,  and  their  men  either  perished  miserably 
in  the  Syracusan  dungeons,  or  were  sold  into  slavery  to  the  very 
persons  whom,  in  their  pride  of  power,  they  had  crossed  the  seas 
to  enslave. 

All  danger  from  Athens  to  the  independent  nations  of  the  "West 
was  now  forever  at  an  end.  She,  indeed,  continued  to  struggle 
against  her  combined  enemies  and  revolted  allies  with  unparalleled 
gallantry,  and  many  more  years  of  varying  warfare  passed  away 
before  she  surrendered  to  their  arms.  But  no  success  in  subsequent 
contests  could  ever  have  restored  her  to  the  pre-eminence  in  enter- 
prise, resources,  and  maritime  skill  which  she  had  acquired  before 
her  fatal  reverses  in  Sicily.  Nor  among  the  rival  Greek  republics, 
whom  her  own  rashness  aided  to  crush  her,  was  there  any  capable 
of  reorganizing  her  empire,  or  resuming  her  schemes  of  conquest. 
The  dominion  jf  Western  Europe  was  left  for  Rome  and  Carthage 
to  dispute  two  centuries  later,  in  conflicts  still  more  terrible,  and 
with  higher  displays  of  military  daring  and  gcnii;s  tlian  Athens  had 
witnessed  either  in  her  rise,  her  meridian,  or  her  fall.         [Creasy, 


CHAPTER    IV 
THE   VICTORY  OF  ARBELA 

ALEXANDER  THE  GREAT :  HIS  CONQUEST  OF  ASIA  AND 
ENTRY  INTO  BABYLON 

331  B.C. 

ARRIAN,  who  Avrote  his  history  of  Alexander  when  Hadrian 
was  emperor  of  the  Roman  world,  and  when  the  spirit  of 
declamation  and  dogmatism  was  at  its  full  height,  but  who 
was  himseK,  unlike  the  dreaming  pedants  of  the  schools,  a  states- 
man and  a  soldier  of  practical  and  proved  abihty,  well  rebuked  the 
malevolent  aspersions  which  he  heard  continually  thrown  upon  the 
memory  of  the  great  conqueror  of  the  East.  He  truly  says,  "Let 
the  man  who  speaks  evil  of  Alexander  not  merely  bring  forward 
those  passages  of  Alexander's  life  which  were  really  e^-il,  but  let 
him  collect  and  review  all  the  actions  of  Alexander,  and  then  let 
him  thoroughly  consider  first  who  and  what  manner  of  man  he 
himself  is,  and  what  has  been  his  own  career;  and  then  let  him 
consider  who  and  what  manner  of  man  Alexander  was,  and  to 
what  an  eminence  of  human  grandeur  he  arrived.  Let  him  con- 
sider that  Alexander  was  a  king  and  the  undisputed  lord  of  the  two 
continents,  and  that  his  name  is  renowned  throughout  the  whole 
earth.  Let  the  evil-speaker  against  Alexander  bear  all  this  in 
mind,  and  then  let  him  reflect  on  his  own  insignificance,  the  pet- 
tiness of  his  own  circumstances  and  affairs,  and  the  blunders  that 
he  makes  about  these,  paltry  and  trifling  as  they  are.  Let  him 
then  ask  himself  whether  he  is  a  fit  person  to  censure  and  revile 
such  a  man  as  Alexander.  I  believe  that  there  was  in  his  time 
no  nation  of  men,  no  city,  nay,  no  single  individual  with  whom 
Alexander's  name  had  not  become  a  familiar  word.  I  therefore 
(86) 


THE   VICTORY   OF    ARBELA  87 

hold  that  such  a  man,  who  was  Hke  no  ordinary  mortal,  was  not 
born  into  the  world  without  some  special  providence. ' ' 

And  one  of  the  most  distinguished  soldiers  and  writers.  Sir  Wal- 
ter Raleigh,  though  he  failed  to  estimate  justly  the  full  merits  of 
Alexander,  has  expressed  his  sense  of  the  grandeur  of  the  part 
played  in  the  world  by  "the  great  Emathian  conqueror"  in  lan- 
guage that  well  deserves  quotation : 

"So  much  hath  the  spirit  of  some  one  man  excelled  as  it  hath 
undertaken  and  effected  the  alteration  of  the  greatest  states  and 
commonweals,  the  erection  of  monarchies,  the  conquest  of  king- 
doms and  empires,  guided  handfuls  of  men  against  multitudes  of 
e(iual  bodily  strength,  contrived  victories  beyond  all  hope  and  dis- 
course of  reason,  converted  the  fearful  passions  of  his  own  follow- 
ers into  magnanimity,  and  the  valor  of  his  enemies  into  cowardice ; 
such  spirits  have  been  stirred  up  in  sundry  ages  of  the  world,  and 
in  divers  parts  thereof,  to  erect  and  cast  down  again,  to  establish 
and  to  destroj'',  and  to  bring  all  things,  persons  and  states  to  the 
same  certain  ends,  which  the  infinite  spirit  of  the  Universal,  pierc- 
ing, moving  and  governing  all  things,  hath  ordained.  Certainly, 
the  things  that  this  king  did  were  marvelous,  and  Avould  hardly 
have  been  undertaken  by  any  one  else ;  and  though  his  father  had 
determined  to  have  invaded  the  Lesser  Asia,  it  is  like  enough  that 
he  would  have  contented  himself  with  some  part  thereof,  and  not 
have  discovered  the  river  of  Indus,  as  this  man  did."  ■" 

A  higher  authority  than  either  Arrian  or  Raleigh  may  now  be 
referred  to  by  those  who  wish  to  know  the  real  merit  of  Alexander 
as  a  general,  and  how  far  the  commonplace  assertions  are  true  that 
his  successes  were  the  mere  results  of  fortunate  rashness  and  un- 
reasoning pugnacity.  Napoleon  selected  Alexander  as  one  of  the 
seven  greatest  generals  whose  noble  deeds  history  has  handed  down 
to  us,  and  from  the  study  of  whose  campaigns  the  principles  of  war 
are  to  be  learned.  The  critique  of  the  greatest  conqueror  of  modern 
times  on  the  militar}"  career  of  the  great  conqueror  of  the  Old  World 
is  no  less  graphic  than  true : 

"Alexander  crossed  the  Dardanelles  334  B.C.,  with  an  army 

*  "The  Historic  of  the  World,"  bj'  Sir  Walter  Raleigh,  Knight,  p.  018 


«8        GREAT  BATTLES  OF  ALL  NATIONS 

of  about  forty  thousand  men,  of  which  one-eighth  was  cavalry; 
he  forced  the  passage  of  the  Granicus  in  opposition  to  an  army 
under  Memnon,  the  Greek,  who  commanded  for  Darius  on  the 
coast  of  Asia,  and  he  spent  the  whole  of  the  year  333  in  establish- 
ing his  power  in  Asia  Minor.  He  was  seconded  by  the  Greek  colo- 
nies, who  dwelt  on  the  borders  of  the  Black  Sea  and  on  the  Medi- 
terranean, and  in  Sardis,  Ephesus,  Tarsus,  Miletus,  etc.  The  kings 
of  Persia  left  their  provinces  and  towns  to  be  governed  according 
to  their  own  particular  laws.  Their  empire  was  a  union  of  confed- 
erated states,  and  did  not  form  one  nation;  this  facilitated  its  con- 
quest. As  Alexander  only  wished  for  the  throne  of  the  monarch, 
he  easily  effected  the  change  b}"  respecting  the  customs,  manners 
and  laws  of  the  people,  who  experienced  no  change  in  their  con- 
dition. 

"In  the  year  332  he  met  with  Darius  at  the  head  of  sixty  thou- 
sand mien,  who  had  taken  up  a  position  near  Tarsus,  on  the  banks 
of  the  Issus,  in  the  pronnce  of  Cilicia.  He  defeated  him,  entered 
Syria,  took  Damascus,  which  contained  all  the  riches  of  the  Great 
King,  and  laid  siege  to  Tyre.  This  superb  metropolis  of  the  com- 
merce of  the  world  detained  him  nine  months.  He  took  Gaza  after 
a  siege  of  two  months ;  crossed  the  Desert  in  seven  days ;  entered 
Pelusium  and  Memphis,  and  founded  Alexandria.  In  less  than 
two  years,  after  two  battles  and  four  or  five  sieges,  the  coasts  of 
the  Black  Sea,  from  Phasis  to  B^'zantium,  those  of  the  Mediter- 
ranean as  far  as  Alexandria,  all  Asia  Minor,  S3'ria,  and  Egypt, 
had  submitted  to  his  arms. 

"In  331  he  repassed  the  Desert,  encamped  in  Tyre,  recrossed 
Syria,  entered  Damascus,  passed  the  Euphrates  and  Tigris,  and 
defeated  Darius  on  the  field  of  Arbela  when  he  Avas  at  the  head 
of  a  still  stronger  army  than  that  which  he  commanded  on  the 
Issus,  and  Babylon  opened  her  gates  to  him.  In  330  he  overran 
Susa  and  took  that  city,  Persepolis,  and  Pasargada,  which  con- 
tained the  tomb  of  Cyrus.  In  329  he  directed  his  course  north- 
ward, entered  Ecbatana,  and  extended  his  conquests  to  the  coasts 
of  the  Caspian,  punished  Bessus,  the  cowardly  assassin  of  Darius, 
penetrated  into  Scythia,  and  subdued  the  Scythians.  In  328  he 
forced  the  passage  of  the  Oxus,  received  sixteen  thousand  recruits 


THE   VICTORY    OF    ARBELA  89 

from  Macedonia,  and  reduced  the  neighboring  people  to  subjection. 
In  327  he  crossed  the  Indus,  vanquished  Porus  in  a  pitched  battle, 
took  him  prisoner,  and  treated  him  as  a  king.  He  contemplated 
passing  the  Ganges,  but  his  army  refused.  He  sailed  down  the 
Indus,  in  the  year  326,  with  eight  hundred  vessels;  having  arrived 
at  the  ocean,  he  sent  Nearchus  with  a  fleet  to  run  along  the  coasts 
of  the  Indian  Ocean  and  the  Persian  Gulf  as  far  as  the  mouth  of 
the  Euphrates.  In  325  he  took  sixty  days  in  crossing  from  Ge- 
drosia,  entered  Keramania,  returned  to  Pasargada,  Persepolis,  and 
Susa,  and  married  Statira,  the  daughter  of  Darius.  In  324  he 
marched  once  more  to  the  north,  passed  Ecbatana,  and  terminated 
his  career  at  BabjTon." 

The  enduring  importance  of  Alexander's  conquests  is  to  be  esti- 
mated, not  by  the  duration  of  his  own  life  and  empire,  or  even  b}' 
the  duration  of  the  kingdoms  which  his  generals  after  his  death 
formed  out  of  the  fragments  of  that  mighty  dominion.  In  every 
region  of  the  world  that  he  traversed,  Alexander  planted  Greek 
settlements  and  founded  cities,  in  the  populations  of  which  the 
Greek  element  at  once  asserted  its  predominance.  Among  his 
successors,  the  Seleucidse  and  the  Ptolemies  imitated  their  great 
captain  in  blending  schemes  of  civilization,  of  commercial  inter- 
course, and  of  literary  and  scientific  research,  with  all  their  enter- 
prises of  military  aggrandizement  and  with  aU  their  systems  of 
civil  administration.  Such  was  the  ascendency  of  the  Greek  gen- 
ius, so  wonderfully  comprehensive  and  assimilating  was  the  culti- 
vation which  it  introduced,  that,  within  thirty  years  after  Alexan- 
der crossed  the  Hellespont,  the  Greek  language  was  spoken  in 
every  countr}-  from  the  shores  of  the  ^gean  to  the  Indus,  and 
also  throughout  Egypt — not,  indeed,  wholly  to  the  extirpation  of 
the  native  dialects,  but  it  became  the  language  of  every  court,  of 
all  literature,  of  every  judicial  and  political  function,  and  formed 
a  medium  of  communication  among  the  many  mj-riads  of  mankind 
inhabiting  these  large  portions  of  the  Old  "World.  Throughout 
Asia  Minor,  Sj'ria,  and  Egypt,  the  Hellenic  character  that  was 
thus  imparted  remained  in  full  vigor  down  to  the  time  of  the  Mo- 
hammedan conquests.  The  infinite  value  of  this  to  humanity  in 
the  highest  and  holiest  point  of  view  has  often  been  pointed  out, 


90  GREAT   BATTLES    OF   ALL   NATIONS 

and  the  workings  of  the  finger  of  Providence  have  been  gratefully- 
recognized  by  those  who  have  observed  how  the  early  growth  and 
progress  of  Christianity  were  aided  by  that  diffusion  of  the  Greek 
language  and  civilization  throughout  Asia  Minor,  Syria,  and  Egypt, 
which  had  been  caused  by  the  Macedonian  conquest  of  the  East. 

In  Upper  Asia,  beyond  the  Euphrates,  the  direct  and  material 
influence  of  Greek  ascendency  was  more  shortHved.  Yet,  during 
the  existence  of  the  Hellenic  kingdoms  in  these  regions,  especially 
of  the  Greek  kingdom  of  Bactria,  the  modern  Bokhara,  very  im- 
portant effects  were  produced  on  the  intellectual  tendencies  and 
tastes  of  the  inhabitants  of  those  countries,  and  of  the  adjacent 
ones,  by  the  animating  contact  of  the  Grecian  spirit.  Much  of 
Hindu  science  and  philosophy,  much  of  the  literature  of  the  later 
Persian  kingdom  of  the  Arsacidte,  either  originated  from,  or  was 
largely  modified  by,  Grecian  influences.  So,  also,  the  learning  and 
science  of  the  Arabians  were  in  a  far  less  degree  the  result  of  origi- 
nal invention  and  genius  than  the  reproduction,  in  an  altered  form, 
of  the  GreeJk  philosophy  and  the  Greek  lore  acquired  by  the  Sara- 
cenic conquerors,  together  with  their  acquisition  of  the  provinces 
which  Alexander  had  subjugated,  nearly  a  thousand  years  before 
the  armed  disciples  of  Mohammed  commenced  their  career  in  the 
East.  It  is  well  known  that  Western  Europe  in  the  Middle  Ages 
drew  its  philosophy,  its  arts,  and  its  science  principally  from  Ara- 
bian teachers.  And  thus  we  see  how  the  intellectual  influence  of 
ancient  Greece,  poured  on  the  Eastern  world  by  Alexander's  vic- 
tories, and  then  brought  back  to  bear  on  Medieval  Europe  by  the 
spread  of  the  Saracenic  powers,  has  exerted  its  action  on  the 
elements  of  modern  civilization  by  this  powerful  though  indirect 
channel,  as  well  as  by  the  more  obvious  effects  of  the  remnants  of 
classic  civilization  which  survived  in  Italy,  Gaul,  Britain,  and  Spain, 
after  the  irruption  of  the  Germanic  nations. 

These  considerations  invest  the  Macedonian  triumphs  in  the 
East  with  never-dying  interest,  such  as  the  most  showy  and  san- 
guinary successes  of  mere  "low  ambition  and  the  pride  of  kings," 
however  they  may  dazzle  for  a  moment,  can  never  retain  with  pos- 
terity. Whether  the  old  Persian  empire  which  Cj^rus  founded  could 
kave  survived  much  longer  than  it  did,  even  if  Darius  had  been 


THE   VICTORY   OF    ARBELA  Ql 

victorious  at  Arbela,  may  safely  be  disputed.  That  ancient  domin- 
ion, like  the  Turkish  at  the  present  time,  labored  under  every  cause 
of  decay  and  dissolution.  The  satraps,  like  the  modern  pashas, 
continually  rebelled  against  the  central  power,  and  Egypt  in  par- 
ticular was  almost  always  in  a  state  of  insurrection  against  its 
nominal  sovereign.  There  was  no  longer  any  effective  central  con- 
trol, or  any  internal  principle  of  unity  fused  through  the  huge  mass 
of  the  empire,  and  binding  it  together.  Persia  was  evidently  about 
to  fall;  but,  had  it  not  been  for  Alexander's  invasion  of  Asia,  she 
would  most  probably  have  fallen  beneath  some  other  Oriental 
power,  as  Media  and  Babylon  had  formerly  fallen  before  herself, 
and  as,  in  after  times,  the  Parthian  supremacy  gave  way  to  the 
revived  ascendency  of  Persia  in  the  East,  under  the  scepters  of 
the  Arsacidse.  A  revolution  that  merely  substituted  one  Eastern 
power  for  another  v/ould  have  been  utterly  barren  and  unprofitable 
to  mankind. 

Alexander's  victory  at  Arbela  not  onty  overthrew  an  Oriental 
dynasty,  but  established  European  rulers  in  its  stead.  It  broke 
the  monotony  of  the  Eastern  world  by  the  impression  of  Western 
energy  and  superior  civilization,  even  as  England's  present  mission 
is  to  break  up  the  mental  and  moral  stagnation  of  India  and  Cathay 
by  pouring  upon  and  through  them  the  impulsive  current  of  Anglo- 
Saxon  commerce  and  conquest. 

Arbela,  the  city  which  has  furnished  its  name  to  the  decisive 
battle  which  gave  Asia  to  Alexander,  lies  more  than  twenty  miles 
from  the  actual  scene  of  conflict.  The  little  village  then  named 
Gaugamela  is  close  to  the  spot  where  the  armies  met,  but  has 
ceded  the  honor  of  naming  the  battle  to  its  more  euphonious  neigh- 
bor. Gaugamela  is  situate  in  one  of  the  wide  plains  that  lie  be- 
tween the  Tigris  and  the  mountains  of  Kurdistan.  A  few  undu- 
lating hiUocks  diversify  the  surface  of  this  sandy  tract;  but  the 
ground  is  generally  level,  and  admirably  qualified  for  the  evolu- 
tions of  cavalry,  and  also  calculated  to  give  the  larger  of  two 
armies  the  full  advantage  of  numerical  superiority.  The  Persian 
king  (who,  before  he  came  to  the  throne,  had  proved  his  personal 
valor  as  a  soldier  and  his  skill  as  a  general)  had  wisely  selected  this 
resrion  for  the  third  and  decisive  encounter  between  his  forces  and 


92  GREAT    BATTLES    OF    ALL    NATIONS 

the  invader.  The  previous  defeats  of  his  troops,  however  severe 
they  had  been,  were  not  looked  on  as  irreparable.  The  Granicus 
had  been  fought  by  his  generals  rashly  and  without  mutual  con- 
cert ;  and,  though  Darius  himself  had  commanded  and  been  beaten 
at  Issus,  that  defeat  might  be  attributed  to  the  disadvantageous 
nature  of  the  ground,  where,  cooped  up  between  the  mountains, 
the  river  and  the  sea,  the  numbers  of  the  Persians  confused  and 
clogged  alike  the  general's  skill  and  the  soldiers'  prowess,  and  their 
verj'  strength  had  been  made  their  weakness.  Here,  on  the  broad 
plains  of  Kurdistan,  there  was  scope  for  Asia's  largest  host  to  arvRy 
its  lines,  to  wheel,  to  skirmish,  to  condense  or  expand  its  squadrons, 
to  maneuver,  and  to  charge  at  will.  Should  Alexander  and  his 
scanty  band  dare  to  plunge  into  that  living  sea  of  war,  their  de- 
struction seemed  inevitable. 

Darius  felt,  however,  the  critical  nature  to  himself  as  well  as 
to  his  adversary  of  the  coming  encounter.  He  could  not  hope  to 
retrieve  the  consequences  of  a  third  overthrow.  The  great  cities 
of  Mesopotamia  and  Upper  Asia,  the  central  provinces  of  the  Per- 
sian empire,  were  certain  to  be  at  the  mercy  of  the  victor.  Darius 
knew  also  the  Asiatic  character  well  enough  to  be  aware  how  it 
yields  to  the  prestige  of  success  and  the  apparent  career  of  destiny. 
He  felt  that  the  diadem  was  now  either  to  be  firmly  replaced  on 
his  brow,  or  to  be  irrevocably  transferred  to  the  head  of  his 
European  conqueror.  He,  therefor  %  dviring  the  long  interval  left 
him  after  the  battle  of  Issus,  whil  Alexander  was  subjugating 
Syria  and  Egypt,  assiduo  ly  busied  himself  in  selecting  the  best 
troops  which  his  vast  empire  supplied,  and  in  training  his  varied 
forces  to  act  together  with  some  uniformity  of  discipline  and 
system. 

The  hardy  mountaineers  of  Afghanistan,  Bokhara,  Khiva,  and 
Thibet  were  then,  as  at  present,  far  different  to  the  generality  of  Asi- 
atics in  warlike  spirit  and  endurance.  From  these  districts  Darius 
collected  large  bodies  of  admirable  infantry ;  and  the  countries  of 
the  modem  Kurds  and  Turkomans  supplied,  as  they  do  now,  squad- 
rons of  horsemen,  hardy,  skillful,  bold,  and  trained  to  a  life  of  con- 
stant activity  and  warfare.  It  is  not  uninteresting  to  notice  that 
the  ancestors  of  our  own  late  enemies,  the  Sikhs,  served  as  allies 


THE    VICTORY   OF   ARBELA  93 

of  Darius  against  the  Macedonians.  They  are  spoken  of  in  Arrian 
as  Indians  who  dwelt  near  Bactria.  They  were  attached  to  the 
troops  of  that  satrapy,  and  their  cavalry  was  one  of  the  most  for- 
midable forces  in  the  whole  Persian  army. 

Besides  these  picked  troops,  contingents  also  came  in  from  the 
numerous  other  provinces  that  yet  obeyed  the  Great  King.  Alto- 
gether, the  horse  are  said  to  have  been  forty  thousand,  the  scythe- 
bearing  chariots  two  hundred,  and  the  armed  elephants  fifteen  in 
number.  The  amount  of  infantry  is  uncertain ;  but  the  knowledge 
which  both  ancient  and  modern  times  supply  of  the  usual  character 
of  Oriental  armies,  and  of  their  populations  of  camp  followers,  may 
warrant  us  in  believing  that  many  myriads  were  prepared  to  fight, 
or  to  encumber  those  who  fought,  for  the  last  Darius. 

The  position  of  the  Persian  king  near  Mesopotamia  was  chosen 
with  great  military  skill.  It  was  certain  that  Alexander,  on  his 
return  from  Egypt,  must  march  northward  along  the  Syrian  coast 
before  he  attacked  the  central  provinces  of  the  Persian  empire.  A 
direct  eastward  march  from  the  lower  part  of  Palestine  across  the 
great  Sja-ian  Desert  was  then,  as  ever,  utterly  impracticable. 
Marching  eastward  from  Syria,  Alexander  would,  on  crossing 
the  Euphrates,  arrive  at  the  vast  Mesopotamian  plains.  The 
wealthy  capitals  of  the  empire,  Babylon,  Susa,  and  Persepolis, 
would  then  lie  to  the  south;  and  if  he  marched  down  through 
Mesopotamia  to  attack  them,  Darius  might  reasonablj^  hope  to  fol- 
low the  Macedonians  with  his  immense  force  of  cavalr}^  and,  with- 
out even  risking  a  pit(,'hed  battle,  to  harass  and  finally  overwhelm 
them.  We  may  remember  that  three  centuries  afterward  a  Roman 
army  under  Crassus  was  thus  actually  destroyed  by  the  Oriental 
archers  and  horsemen  in  these  very  plains,  and  that  the  ancestors 
(jf  the  Parthians  who  thus  vanquished  the  Roman  legions  served 
by  thousands  under  King  Darius.  If,  on  the  contrar}',  Alexander 
should  defer  his  march  against  Babylon,  and  first  seek  an  encoun- 
ter with  the  Persian  army,  the  country  on  each  side  of  the  Tigris 
in  this  latitude  was  highly  advantageous  for  such  an  army  as 
Darius  commanded,  and  he  had  close  in  his  rear  the  mountainous 
districts  of  Northern  Media,  where  he  himself  had  in  early  life 
been  satrap,  where  he  had  acquired  reputation  as  a  soldier  and 


94  GREAT   BATTLES    OF   ALL   NATIONS 

a  general,   and  where  he  justly  expected   to   find   loyalty  to  his 
person,  and  a  safe  refuge  in  case  of  defeat. 

His  great  antagonist  came  on  across  the  Euphrates  against  him, 
at  the  head  of  an  army  which  Ai-rian,  copying  from  the  journals 
of  Macedonian  officers,  states  to  have  consisted  of  forty  thousand 
foot  and  seven  thousand  horse.  In  studjdng  the  campaigns  of 
Alexander,  we  possess  the  peculiar  advantage  of  deriving  our  in- 
formation from  two  of  Alexander's  generals  of  division,  who  bore 
an  important  part  in  all  his  enterprises.  Aristobulus  and  Ptolemy 
(who  afterward  became  king  of  Egypt)  kept  regular  journals  of 
the  mihtary  events  which  they  witnessed,  and  these  journals  were 
in  the  possession  of  Arrian  when  he  drew  up  his  history  of  Alex- 
ander's expedition.  The  high  character  of  Arrian  for  integrity 
makes  us  confident  that  he  used  them  fairly,  and  his  comments 
on  the  occasional  discrepancies  between  the  two  Macedonian  narra- 
tives prove  that  he  used  them  sensibly.  He  frequently  quotes  the 
very  words  of  his  authorities ;  and  his  history  thus  acquires  a  charm 
such  as  very  few  ancient  or  modern  mihtary  narratives  possess. 
The  anecdotes  and  expressions  which  he  records  we  fairly  believe 
to  be  genuine,  and  not  to  be  the  coinage  of  a  rhetorician,  hke  those 
in  Curtius.  In  fact,  in  reading  Arrian,  we  read  General  Aristobu- 
lus and  General  Ptolemy  on  the  campaigns  of  the  Macedonians, 
and  it  is  like  reading  General  Jomini  or  General  Foy  on  the 
campaigns  of  the  French. 

The  estimate  which  we  find  in  Arrian  of  the  strength  of  Alex- 
ander's army  seems  reasonable  enough,  when  we  take  into  account 
both  the  losses  which  he  had  sustained  and  the  re-enforcements 
which  he  had  received  since  he  left  Europe.  Indeed,  to  English- 
men, who  know  with  what  mere  handfuls  of  men  our  own  generals 
have,  at  Plassy,  at  Assaye,  at  Meeanee,  and  other  Indian  battles, 
routed  large  hosts  of  the  Asiatics,  the  disparity  of  numbers  that 
we  read  of  in  the  victories  won  by  the  Macedonians  over  the  Per- 
sians presents  nothing  incredible.  The  army  which  Alexander 
now  led  was  wholly  composed  of  veteran  troops  in  the  highest 
possible  state  of  equipment  and  discipline,  enthusiastically  devoted 
to  their  leader,  and  full  of  confidence  in  his  military  genius  and  his 
rictorious  destinj. 


THE   VICTORY    OF   ARBELA  95 

The  celebrated  Macedonian  phalanx  formed  the  main  strength 
of  his  infantry.  This  force  had  been  raised  and  organized  by  his 
father  Philip,  who,  on  his  accession  to  the  Macedonian  throne, 
needed  a  numerous  and  quickly-formed  army,  and  who,  by  length- 
ening thfc  spear  of  the  ordinary  Greek  phalanx,  and  increasing  the 
depth  of  the  files,  brought  the  tactic  of  armed  masses  to  the  highest 
extent  of  which  it  was  capable  with  such  materials  as  he  possessed. 
He  formed  his  men  sixteen  deep,  and  placed  in  their  grasp  the 
sarissa,  as  the  Macedonian  pike  was  called,  which  was  four-and- 
twenty  feet  in  length,  and,  when  couched  for  action,  reached  eigh- 
teen feet  in  front  of  the  soldier;  so  that,  as  a  space  of  about  two 
feet  was  allowed  between  the  ranks,  the  spears  of  the  five  files 
behind  him  projected  in  front  of  each  front-rank  man.  The 
phalangite  soldier  was  fully  equipped  in  the  defensive  armor  of 
the  regular  Greek  infantry.  And  thus  the  phalanx  presented  a 
ponderous  and  bristling  mass,  which,  as  long  as  its  order  was  kept 
compact,  was  sure  to  bear  down  all  opposition.  The  defects  of 
such  an  organization  are  obvious,  and  were  proved  in  after  years, 
when  the  Macedonians  were  opposed  to  the  Roman  legions.  But 
it  is  clear  that  under  Alexander  the  phalanx  was  not  the  cumbrous, 
unwieldy  body  which  it  was  at  Cynoscephalse  and  Pydna.  His 
men  were  veterans ;  and  he  could  obtain  from  them  an  accuracy 
of  movement  and  steadiness  of  evolution  such  as  probably  the  re- 
cruits of  his  father  would  only  have  floundered  in  attempting,  and 
such  as  certainly  were  impracticable  in  the  phalanx  when  handled 
by  his  successors,  especially  as  under  them  it  ceased  to  be  a  stand- 
ing force,  and  became  only  a  militia.  Under  Alexander  the  pha- 
lanx consisted  of  an  aggregate  of  eighteen  thousand  men,  who  were 
divided  into  six  brigades  of  three  thousand  each.  These  were  again 
subdivided  into  regiments  and  companies ;  and  the  men  were  care- 
fully trained  to  wheel,  to  face  about,  to  take  more  ground,  or  to 
close  up,  as  the  emergencies  of  the  battle  required.  Alexander 
also  arrayed  troops  armed  in  a  different  manner  in  the  intervals  of 
the  regiments  of  his  phalangites,  who  could  prevent  their  line  from 
being  pierced  and  their  companies  taken  in  flank,  when  the  nature 
of  the  ground  prevented  a  close  formation,  and  who  could  be  with- 
drawn when  a  favorable  opportimity  arrived  for  closing  up  the 


96  GREAT   BATTLES    OF   ALL   NATIONS 

phalanx  or  any  of  its  brigades  for  a  charge,  or  when  it  was  neces- 
sary to  prepare  to  receive  cavahy. 

Besides  the  phalanx,  Alexander  had  a  considerable  force  of  in- 
fantry who  were  called  shield-bearers :  they  were  not  so  heavily 
armed  as  the  phalangites,  or  as  was  the  case  with  the  Greek  regu- 
lar infantry  in  general,  but  they  were  equipped  for  close  fight  as 
well  as  for  skirmishing,  and  were  far  superior  to  the  ordinar}'  ir- 
regular troops  of  Greek  warfare.  They  were  about  six  thousand 
strong.  Besides  these,  he  had  several  bodies  of  Greek  regular  in- 
fantry; and  he  had  archers,  slingers,  and  javelin-men,  who  fought 
also  with  broadsword  and  target,  and  who  were  principally  sup- 
plied him  by  the  highlanders  of  Illyria  and  Thracia.  The  main 
strength  of  his  cavalry  consisted  in  two  chosen  regiments  of  cuiras- 
siers, one  Macedonian  and  one  Thessalian,  each  of  which  was  about 
fifteen  hundred  strong.  They  were  provided  with  long  lances  and 
heavy  swords,  and  horse  as  well  as  man  was  fully  equipped  with 
defensive  armor.  Other  regiments  of  regular  cavalry  were  less 
heavily  armed,  and  there  were  several  bodies  of  light  horsemen, 
whom  Alexander's  conquests  in  Egj'pt  and  Syria  had  enabled  him 
to  mount  superbl}'. 

A  little  before  the  end  of  August,  Alexander  crossed  the  Eu- 
phrates at  Thapsacus,  a  small  corps  of  Persian  cavalry  under 
Mazseus  retiring  before  him.  Alexander  was  too  prudent  to 
march  down  through  the  Mesopotamian  deserts,  and  continued 
to  advance  eastward  with  the  intention  of  passing  the  Tigris,  and 
then,  if  he  was  unable  to  find  Darius  and  bring  him  to  action,  of 
marching  southward  on  the  left  side  of  that  river  along  the  skirts 
of  a  mountainous  district  where  his  men  would  suffer  less  from 
heat  and  thirst,  and  where  provisions  would  be  more  abundant. 

Darius,  finding  that  his  adversary  was  not  to  be  enticed  into 
the  march  through  Mesopotamia  against  his  capital,  determined 
to  remain  on  the  battle-ground  which  he  had  chosen  on  the  left 
of  the  Tigris ;  where,  if  his  enemy  met  a  defeat  or  a  check,  the  de- 
struction of  the  invaders  would  be  certain  with  two  such  rivers  as 
the  Euphrates  and  the  Tigris  in  their  rear.  The  Persian  king 
availed  himself  to  the  utmost  of  every  advantage  in  his  power. 
He  caused  a  large  space  of  ground  to  be  carefully  leveled  for  the 


THE   VICTORY    OF    ARBELA  97 

operation  of  his  scythe-armed  chariots;  and  he  deposited  his  mili- 
tary stores  in  the  strong  town  of  Arbela,  about  twenty  miles  in  his 
rear.  The  rhetoricians  of  after  ages  have  loved  to  describe  Darius 
Codomanus  as  a  second  Xerxes  in  ostentation  and  imbecility ;  but 
a  fair  examination  of  his  generalship  in  this  his  last  campaign 
shows  that  he  was  worthy  of  bearing  the  same  name  as  his  great 
predecessor,  the  royal  son  of  Hystaspes. 

On  learning  that  Darius  was  with  a  large  army  on  the  left  of 
the  Tigris,  Alexander  hurried  forward  and  crossed  that  river  witii- 
out  opposition.  He  was  at  first  imable  to  procure  any  certain  intel- 
ligence of  the  precise  position  of  the  enemy,  and  after  giving  his 
army  a  short  interval  of  rest,  he  marched  for  four  days  down  the 
left  bank  of  the  river.  A  moralist  may  pause  upon  the  fact  that 
Alexander  must  in  this  march  have  passed  within  a  few  miles  of 
the  ruins  of  Nineveh,  the  great  city  of  the  primeval  conquerors 
of  the  human  race.  Neither  the  Macedonian  king  nor  any  of  his 
followers  knew  what  those  vast  mounds  had  once  been.  They 
had  already  sunk  into  utter  destruction;  and  it  is  only  within 
the  last  few  years  that  the  intellectual  energy  of  one  of  our 
own  countrymen  has  rescued  Nineveh  from  its  long  centuries 
of  obhvion. 

On  the  fourth  day  of  Alexander's  southward  march,  his  ad- 
vanced guard  reported  that  a  body  of  the  enemy's  cavalry  was  in 
sight.  He  instantly  formed  his  army  in  order  for  battle,  and  di- 
recting them  to  advance  steadily,  he  rode  forward  at  the  head  of 
some  squadrons  of  cavalry,  and  charged  the  Persian  horse,  whom 
he  found  before  him.  This  was  a  mere  reconnoitering  party,  and 
they  broke  and  fled  immediately ;  but  the  Macedonians  made  some 
prisoners,  and  from  them  Alexander  found  that  Darius  was  posted 
only  a  few  miles  off,  and  learned  the  strength  of  the  army  that  he 
had  with  him.  On  receiving  this  news  Alexander  halted  and  gave 
his  men  repose  for  four  days,  so  that  they  should  go  into  action 
fresh  and  vigorous.  He  also  fortified  his  camp  and  deposited  in 
it  all  his  military  stores,  and  all  his  sick  and  disabled  soldiers,  in- 
tending to  advance  upon  the  enemj'  with  the  serviceable  part  of 
his  army  perfectly  unencumbered.  After  this  halt,  he  moved  for- 
ward, while  it  was  yet  dark,  with  the  intention  of  reaching  the 
D— Vol.  I. 


98  GREAT   BATTLES    OF    ALL   NATIONS 

enemy,  and  attacking  them  at  break  of  day.  About  half  way  be- 
tween the  camps  there  were  some  undulations  of  the  ground,  which 
concealed  the  two  armies  from  each  other's  view;  but,  on  Alexan- 
der arriving  at  their  summit,  he  saw,  by  the  early  light,  the  Per- 
sian host  arrayed  before  him,  and  he  probably  also  observed  traces 
of  some  engineering  operation  having  been  carried  on  along  part 
of  the  ground  in  front  of  them.  Not  knowing  that  these  marks 
had  been  caused  by  the  Persians  having  leveled  the  ground  for  the 
free  use  of  their  war-chariots,  Alexander  suspected  that  hidden 
pitfalls  had  been  prepared  with  a  view  of  disordering  the  approach 
of  his  cavalry.  He  summoned  a  council  of  war  forthwith.  Some 
of  the  officers  were  for  attacking  instantly,  at  all  hazards ;  but  the 
more  prudent  opinion  of  Parmenio  prevailed,  and  it  was  determined 
not  to  advance  further  till  the  battleground  had  been  carefully 
surveyed. 

Alexander  halted  his  army  on  the  heights,  and,  taking  with  him 
some  light-armed  infantry  and  some  cavaliy,  he  passed  part  of  the 
day  in  reconnoitering  the  enemy,  and  observing  the  nature  of  the 
gromid  which  he  had  to  fight  on.  Darius  wisely  refrained  from 
moving  from  his  position  to  attack  the  Macedonians  on  the  emi- 
nences which  thej'  occupied,  and  the  two  armies  remained  until 
night  without  molesting  each  other.  On  Alexander's  return  to  his 
headquarters,  he  summoned  his  generals  and  superior  officers  to- 
gether, and  telling  them  that  he  knew  well  that  their  zeal  wanted 
no  exhortation,  he  besought  them  to  do  their  utmost  in  encourag- 
ing and  instructing  those  whom  each  commanded,  to  do  their  best 
in  the  next  day's  battle.  They  were  to  remind  them  that  they 
were  now  not  going  to  fight  for  a  province  as  the}'  had  hitherto 
fought,  but  they  were  about  to  decide  by  their  swords  the  dominion 
of  all  Asia.  Each  officer  ought  to  impress  this  upon  his  subalterns, 
and  they  should  urge  it  on  their  men.  Their  natural  courage  re- 
quired no  long  words  to  excite  its  ardor;  but  they  should  be 
reminded  of  the  paramount  importance  of  steadiness  in  action. 
The  silence  in  the  ranks  must  be  unbroken  as  long  as  silence  was 
proper;  but  when  the  time  came  for  the  charge,  the  shout  and  the 
cheer  must  be  full  of  terror  for  the  foe.  The  officers  were  to  be 
alert  in  receiving  and  communicating  orders;   and  every  one  was 


THE    VICTORY    OF    ARBELA  99 

to  act  as  if  he  felt  that  the  whole  result  of  the  battle  depended  on 
his  own  single  good  conduct. 

Having  thus  briefly  instructed  his  generals,  Alexander  ordered 
that  the  army  should  sup  and  take  then  rest  for  the  night. 

Darkness  had  closed  over  the  tents  of  the  Macedonians,  when 
Alexander's  veteran  general,  Parmenio,  oame  to  him,  and  proposed 
that  they  should  make  a  night  attack  on  the  Persians.  The  king 
is  said  to  have  answered  that  he  scorned  to  filch  a  victory,  and  that 
Alexander  must  conquer  openly  and  fairly.  Arrian  justly  remarks 
that  Alexander's  resolution  was  as  wise  as  it  was  spirited.  Besides 
the  confusion  and  uncertainty  which  are  inseparable  from  night 
engagements,  the  value  of  Alexander's  victory  would  have  been 
impaired,  if  gained  under  circumstances  which  might  supply  the 
enemy  "svith  any  excuse  for  his  defeat,  and  encouraged  him  to  re- 
new the  contest.  It  was  necessary  for  Alexander  not  only  to  beat 
Darius,  but  to  gain  such  a  victory  as  should  leave  his  rival  without 
apology  and  without  hope  of  recovery. 

The  Persians,  in  fact,  expected,  and  were  prepared  to  meet,  a 
night  attack.  Such  was  the  apprehension  that  Darius  entertained 
of  it  that  he  formed  his  troops  at  evening  in  order  of  battle,  and 
kept  them  under  arms  all  night.  The  effect  of  this  was  that  the 
morning  found  them  jaded  and  dispirited,  while  it  brought  their 
adversaries  all  fresh  and  vigorous  agamst  them. 

The  written  order  of  battle  which  Darius  himself  caused  to  be 
drawn  up  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  Macedonians  after  the  engage- 
ment, and  Aristobulus  copied  it  into  his  journal.  We  thus  possess, 
through  Arrian,  unusually  authentic  information  as  to  the  composi- 
tion and  arrangement  of  the  Persian  army.  On  the  extreme  left 
were  the  Bactrian,  Daan,  and  Arachosian  cavalry.  Next  to  these 
Darius  placed  the  troops  from  Persia  proper,  both  horse  and  foot. 
Then  came  the  Susians,  and  next  to  these  the  Cadusians.  These 
forces  made  up  the  left  wing.  Darius's  own  station  was  in  the 
center.  This  was  composed  of  the  Indians,  the  Carians,  the  Mar- 
dian  archers,  and  the  division  of  Persians  who  were  distinguished 
by  the  golden  apples  that  formed  the  knobs  of  their  spears.  Here 
also  were  stationed  the  bodyguard  of  the  Persian  uobiHty.  Be- 
sides these,  there  were,  in  the  center,  formed  in  deep  order,  the 


lOO  GREAT    BATTLES    OF   ALL    NATIONS 

Uxian  and  Bab^Tonian  troops,  and  the  soldiers  from  the  Red  Sea. 
The  brigade  of  Greek  mercenaries  whom  Darius  had  in  his  service, 
and  who  alone  were  considered  fit  to  stand  the  charge  of  the  Mace- 
donian phalanx,  was  drawn  up  on  either  side  of  the  royal  chariot. 
The  right  wing  was  composed  of  the  Coelosyrians  and  Mesopota- 
mians,  the  Medes,  the  Parthians,  the  Sacians,  the  Tapurians,  Hyr- 
canians,  Albanians,  and  Sacesinse.  In  advance  of  the  line  on  the 
left  wing  were  placed  the  Scythian  cavalry,  with  a  thousand  of 
the  Bactrian  horse,  and  a  hundred  scythe-armed  chariots.  The 
elephants  and  fifty  scythe-armed  chariots  were  ranged  in  front  of 
the  center;  and  fifty  more  chariots,  with  the  Armenian  and  Cap- 
padocian  cavalry-,  were  drawn  up  in  advance  of  the  right  wing. 

Thus  arrayed,  the  great  host  of  King  Darius  passed  the  night 
that  to  many  thousands  of  them  was  the  last  of  their  existence. 
The  morning  of  the  first  of  October,  two  thousand  one  hundred 
and  eighty-two  years  ago,  dawned  slowly  to  their  wearied  watch- 
ing, and  they  could  hear  the  note  of  the  Macedonian  trumpet 
sounding  to  arms,  and  could  see  King  Alexander's  forces  descend 
from  their  tents  on  the  heights,  and  form  in  order  of  battle  on 
the  plain. 

There  was  deep  need  of  skill,  as  well  as  of  valor,  on  Alexander's 
side;  and  few  battlefields  have  witnessed  more  consummate  gen- 
eralship than  was  now  displayed  by  the  Macedonian  king.  There 
were  no  natural  barriers  by  which  he  could  protect  his  flanks;  and 
not  only  was  he  certain  to  be  overlapped  on  either  wing  by  the  vast 
lines  of  the  Persian  army,  but  there  was  imminent  risk  of  their  cir- 
cling round  him,  and  charging  him  in  the  rear,  while  he  advanced 
against  their  center.  He  formed,  therefore,  a  second  or  reserve 
line,  which  was  to  wheel  round,  if  required,  or  to  detach  troops  to 
either  flank,  as  the  enemy's  movements  might  necessitate;  and 
thus,  with  their  whole  army  ready  at  an}^  moment  to  be  thrown 
into  one  vast  hollow  square,  the  Macedonians  advanced  in  two  lines 
against  the  enemj',  Alexander  himself  leading  on  the  right  wing, 
and  the  renowned  phalanx  forming  the  center,  while  Parmenio 
commanded  on  the  left. 

Such  was  the  general  nature  of  the  disposition  which  Alexander 
made  of  his  army.     But  we  have  in  Arrian  the  details  of  the  posi- 


THE    VICTORY    OF    ARBELA  loi 

tion  of  each  brigade  and  regiment ;  and  as  we  know  that  these 
details  were  taken  from  the  journals  of  Macedonian  generals,  it  is 
interesting  to  examine  them,  and  to  read  the  names  and  stations 
of  King  Alexander's  generals  and  colonels  in  this,  the  greatest  of 
his  battles. 

The  eight  regiments  of  the  royal  horse-guards  formed  the  right 
of  Alexander's  line.  Their  colonels  were  Cleitus  (whose  regiment 
was  on  the  extreme  right,  the  post  of  peculiar  danger),  Glaucias, 
Ariston,  Sopohs,  Heracleides,  Demetrias,  Meleager,  and  Hegelo- 
chus.  Philotas  was  general  of  the  whole  division.  Then  came  the 
shield-bearing  infantry:  Nicanor  was  their  general.  Then  came 
the  phalanx  in  six  brigades.  Coenus's  brigade  was  on  the  right, 
and  nearest  to  the  shield-bearers;  next  to  this  stood  the  brigade 
of  Perdiccas,  then  Meleager's,  then  Polysperchon's;  and  then  the 
brigade  of  Amynias,  but  which  was  now  commanded  by  Simmias, 
as  Amynias  had  been  sent  to  Macedonia  to  levy  recruits.  Then 
came  the  infantry  of  the  left  wing,  under  the  command  of  Cra- 
terus.  Next  to  Craterus's  infantry  were  placed  the  cavalry  regi- 
ments of  the  allies,  with  Eriguius  for  their  general.  The  Thes- 
salian  cavalry,  commanded  by  Philippus,  were  next,  and  held  the 
extreme  left  of  the  whole  army.  The  whole  left  wing  was  in- 
trusted to  the  command  of  Parmenio,  who  had  round  his  person 
the  Pharsahan  regiment  of  cavalry,  which  was  the  strongest  and 
best  of  all  the  Thessalian  horse  regiments. 

The  center  of  the  second  line  was  occupied  by  a  body  of  pha- 
langite  infantry,  formed  of  companies  which  were  drafted  for  this 
purpose  from  each  of  the  brigades  of  their  phalanx.  The  officers 
in  command  of  this  corps  were  ordered  to  be  ready  to  face  about, 
if  the  enemy  should  succeed  in  gaining  the  rear  of  the  army.  On 
the  right  of  this  reserve  infantry,  in  the  second  hue,  and  behind 
the  royal  horse-guards,  Alexander  placed  half  the  Agrian  light- 
armed  infantry  under  Attains,  and  with  them  Prison's  body  of 
Macedonian  archers  and  Oleander's  regiment  of  foot.  He  also 
placed  in  this  part  of  his  army  Menidas's  squadron  of  cavalry,  and 
Aretes's  and  Ariston's  light  horse.  Menidas  was  ordered  to  watch 
if  the  enemy's  cavalry  tried  to  turn  their  flank,  and,  if  they  did 
so,  to  charge  them  before  they  wheeled  completely  round,  and  so 


102  GREAT   BATTLES    OF    ALL   NATIONS 

take  them  in  flank  themselves,  A  similar  force  was  arranged  on 
the  left  of  the  second  line  for  the  same  purpose.  The  Thracian 
infantry  of  Sitalces  were  placed  there,  and  Coeranus's  regiment 
of  the  cavalry  of  the  Greek  allies,  and  Agathon's  troops  of  the 
Odrysian  irregular  horse.  The  extreme  left  of  the  second  line 
in  this  quarter  was  held  by  Andromachus's  cavalrj-,  A  division 
of  Thracian  infantry  was  left  in  guard  of  the  camp.  In  advance 
of  the  right  wing  and  center  was  scattered  a  number  of  light- 
armed  troops,  of  javelin-men  and  bow-men,  with  the  intention  of 
warding  off  the  charge  of  the  armed  chariots. 

Conspicuous  by  the  brilliancy  of  his  armor,  and  by  the  chosen 
band  of  officers  who  were  round  his  person,  Alexander  took  his 
own  station,  as  his  custom  was,  in  the  right  wing,  at  the  head  of 
his  cavalry ;  and  when  all  the  arrangements  for  the  battle  were 
complete,  and  his  generals  were  fully  instructed  how  to  act  in  each 
probable  emergency,  he  began  to  lead  his  men  toward  the  enemy. 

It  was  ever  his  custom  to  expose  his  life  freely  in  battle,  and 
to  emulate  the  personal  prowess  of  his  great  ancestor,  AchiUes. 
Perhaps,  in  the  bold  enterprise  of  conquering  Persia,  it  was  pohtic 
for  Alexander  to  raise  his  army's  daring  to  the  utmost  by  the  ex- 
ample of  his  own  heroic  valor;  and,  in  his  subsequent  campaigns, 
the  love  of  the  excitement,  of  "the  raptures  of  the  strife,"  may 
have  made  him,  like  Murat,  continue  from  choice  a  custom  which 
he  commenced  from  duty.  But  he  never  suffered  the  ardor  of  the 
soldier  to  make  him  lose  the  coolness  of  the  general. 

Great  rehance  had  been  placed  by  the  Persian  king  on  the  effecta 
of  the  scythe-bearing  chariots.  It  was  designed  to  lanch  these' 
against  the  Macedonian  phalanx,  and  to  follow  them  up  by  a  heavy 
charge  of  cavalry,  which,  it  was  hoped,  would  find  the  ranks  of 
the  spearmen  disordered  by  the  rush  of  the  chariots,  and  easily 
destroy  this  most  formidable  part  of  Alexander's  force.  In  front, 
therefore,  of  the  Persian  center,  where  Darius  took  his  station  and 
which  it  was  supposed  that  the  phalanx  would  attack,  the  ground 
had  been  carefully  leveled  and  smoothed,  so  as  to  allow  the  chariots 
to  charge  over  it  with  their  full  sweep  and  speed.  As  the  Mace- 
donian army  approached  the  Persian,  Alexander  found  that  the 
front  of  his  whole  hne  barely  equaled  the  front  of  the  Persian  cen- 


THE   VICTORY   OF    ARBELA  103 

ter,  so  that  he  was  outflanked  on  his  right  by  the  entire  left  wing 
of  the  enemy,  and  by  their  entire  right  wing  on  his  left.  His 
tactics  were  to  assail  some  one  point  of  the  hostile  army,  and  gain 
a  decisive  advantage,  while  he  refused,  as  far  as  possible,  the  en- 
counter along  the  rest  of  the  line.  He  therefore  inclined  his  order 
of  march  to  the  right,  so  as  to  enable  his  right  wing  and  center  to 
come  into  collision  with  the  enemy  on  as  favorable  'terms  as  pos- 
sible, although  the  maneuver  might  in  some  respect  compromise 
his  left. 

The  effect  of  this  oblique  movement  was  to  bring  the  phalanx 
and  his  own  wing  nearly  beyond  the  limits  of  the  ground  which 
the  Persians  had  prepared  for  the  operations  of  the  chariots;  and 
Darius,  fearing  to  lose  the  benefit  of  this  arm  against  the  most  im- 
portant parts  of  the  Macedonian  force,  ordered  the  Scythian  and 
Bactrian  cavalry,  who  were  drawn  up  in  advane  on  his  extreme 
left,  to  charge  round  upon  Alexander's  right  wing,  and  check  its 
further  lateral  progTess.  Against  these  assailants  Alexander  sent 
from  his  second  line  Menidas's  cavalry.  As  these  proved  too  few 
to  make  head  against  the  enemy,  he  ordered  Ariston  also  from  the 
second  line  with  his  light  horse,  and  Oleander  with  his  foot,  in 
support  of  Menidas.  The  Bactrians  and  Scj^thians  now  began  to 
give  way ;  but  Darius  re-enforced  them  by  the  mass  of  Bactrian 
cavalry  from  his  main  line,  and  an  obstinate  cavalry  fight  now 
took  place.  The  Bactrians  and  Scythians  were  numerous,  and 
were  better  armed  than  the  horsemen  under  Menidas  and  Ariston ; 
and  the  loss  at  first  was  hea\nest  on  the  Macedonian  side.  But 
still  the  European  cavalry  stood  the  charge  of  the  Asiatics,  and  at 
last,  by  their  superior  discipline,  and  by  acting  in  squadrons  that 
supported  each  other,  instead  of  fighting  in  a  confused  mass  like 
the  barbarians,  the  Macedonians  broke  their  adversaries,  and  drove 
them  off  the  field. 

Darius  now  directed  the  scj^the-armed  chariots  to  be  driven 
against  Alexander's  horse-guards  and  the  phalanx,  and  these 
formidable  vehicles  w^ere  accordingly  sent  rattling  across  the  plain, 
against  the  Macedonian  line.  "When  we  remember  the  alarm  which 
the  war-chariots  of  the  Britons  created  among  Csesar's  legions,  we 
shall  not  be  prone  to  deride  this  arm  of  ancient  warfare  as  always 


104       GREAT  BATTLES  OF  ALL  NATIONS 

useless.  The  object  of  the  chariots  was  to  create  unsteadiness  in 
the  ranks  against  which  they  were  driven,  and  squadrons  of  cav- 
ah-y  followed  close  upon  them  to  profit  by  such  disorder.  But  the 
Asiatic  chariots  were  rendered  ineffoctive  at  Arbela  by  the  light- 
armed  troops,  whom  Alexander  had  specially  appointed  for  the 
service,  and  who,  wounding  the  horses  and  drivers  with  their  mis- 
sile weapons,  and  running  alongside  so  as  to  cut  the  traces  or  seize 
the  reins,  marred  the  intended  charge ;  and  the  few  chariots  that 
reached  the  phalanx  passed  harmlessly  through  the  intervals  which 
the  spearmen  opened  for  them,  and  were  easily  captured  in  the  rear, 
A  mass  of  the  Asiatic  cavalry  was  now,  for  the  second  time, 
collected  against  Alexander's  extreme  right,  and  moved  round  it, 
with  the  view  of  gaining  the  flank  of  his  army.  At  the  critical 
moment,  when  their  own  flanks  were  exposed  by  this  evolution. 
Aretes  dashed  on  the  Persian  squadrons  with  his  horsemen  from 
Alexander's  second  line.  While  Alexander  thus  met  and  baffled 
all  the  flanking  attacks  of  the  enemy  with  troops  brought  up  from 
his  second  line,  he  kept  his  own  horse-guards  and  the  rest  of  the 
front  line  of  his  wing  fresh,  and  read}^  to  take  advantage  of  the 
first  opportunity  for  striking  a  decisive  blow.  This  soon  came.  A 
large  body  of  horse,  who  were  posted  on  the  Persian  left  wing  near- 
est to  the  center,  quitted  their  station,  and  rode  off  to  help  their 
comrades  in  the  cavalry  fight  that  still  was  going  on  at  the  ex- 
treme right  of  Alexander's  wing  against  the  detachments  from  his 
second  line.  This  made  a  huge  gap  in  the  Persian  array,  and  into 
this  space  Alexander  instantly  charged  with  his  guard  and  all  the 
cavalry  of  his  wing;  and  then  pressing  toward  his  left,  he  soon 
began  to  make  havoc  in  the  left  flank  of  the  Persian  center.  The 
shield-bearing  infantry  now  charged  also  among  the  reeling  masses 
of  the  Asiatics ;  and  five  of  the  brigades  of  the  phalanx,  with  the 
irresistible  might  of  their  sarissas,  bore  down  the  Greek  mercenaries 
of  Darius,  and  dug  their  way  through  the  Persian  center.  In  the 
early  part  of  the  battle  Darius  had  showed  skill  and  energy ;  and 
he  now,  for  some  time,  encouraged  his  men,  by  voice  and  example, 
to  keep  firm.  But  the  lances  of  Alexander's  cavalry  and  the  pikes 
of  the  phalanx  now  pressed  nearer  and  nearer  to  him.  His  chari- 
©teer  was  struck  down  by  a  javelin  at  his  side;  and  at  last  Darius's 


THE    VICTORY   OF    ARBELA  105 

nerve  failed  him,  and,  descending  from  his  chariot,  he  mounted  on 
a  fleet  horse  and  galloped  from  the  plain,  regardless  of  the  state  of 
the  battle  in  other  parts  of  the  field,  where  matters  were  going  ou 
much  more  favorably  for  his  cause,  and  where  his  presence  might 
have  done  much  toward  gaining  a  victory. 

Alexander's  operations  with  his  right  and  center  had  exposed 
his  left  to  an  immensely  preponderating  force  of  the  enemy.  Par- 
menio  kept  out  of  action  as  long  as  possible;  but  Mazseus,  who 
commanded  the  Persian  right  wing,  advanced  against  him,  com- 
pletely outflanked  hiin,  and  pressed  him  severely  with  reiterated 
charges  by  superior  numbers.  Seeing  the  distress  of  Parmenio's 
wing,  Simmias,  who  commanded  the  sixth  brigade  of  the  phalanx, 
which  was  next  to  the  left  wing,  did  not  advance  with  the  other 
brigades  in  the  great  charge  upon  the  Persian  center,  but  kept  back 
to  cover  Parmenio's  troops  on  their  right  flank,  as  otherwise  they 
would  have  been  completely  surrounded  and  cut  off  from  the  rest 
of  the  Macedonian  army.  By  so  doing,  Simmias  had  unavoidably 
opened  a  gap  in  the  Macedonian  left  center ;  and  a  large  column 
of  Indian  and  Persian  horse,  from  the  Persian  right  center,  had 
galloped  forward  through  this  interval,  and  right  through  the 
troops  of  the  Macedonian  second  line.  Instead  of  then  wheeling 
round  upon  Parmenio,  or  upon  the  rear  of  Alexander's  conquering 
wing,  the  Indian  and  Persian  cavalry  rode  straight  on  to  the  Mace- 
donian camp,  overpowered  the  Thracians  who  were  left  in  charge 
of  it,  and  began  to  plunder.  This  was  stopped  by  the  phalangite 
troops  of  the  second  line,  who,  after  the  enemy's  horsemen  had 
rushed  by  them,  faced  about,  countermarched  upon  the  camp,  killed 
many  of  the  Indians  and  Persians  in  the  act  of  plundering,  and 
forced  the  rest  to  ride  off  again.  Just  at  this  crisis,  Alexander  had 
been  recalled  from  his  pursuit  of  Darius  by  tidings  of  the  distress 
of  Parmenio,  and  of  his  inability  to  bear  up  any  longer  against  the 
hot  attacks  of  Mazseus.  Taking  his  horse-guards  with  him,  Alex- 
ander rode  toward  the  part  of  the  field  where  his  left  wing  was 
fighting;  but  on  his  way  thither  he  encountered  the  Persian  and 
Indian  cavalry,  on  their  return  from  his  camp. 

These  men  now  saw  that  their  only  chance  of  safety  was  to  cut 
their  way  through,  and  in  one  huge  column  they  charged  desper- 


I06  GREAT   BATTLES    OF   ALL   NATIONS 

ately  upon  the  Macedonian  regiments.  There  was  here  a  close 
hand-to-hand  fight,  which  lasted  some  time,  and  sixty  of  the  royal 
horse-guards  fell,  and  three  generals,  who  fought  close  to  Alexan- 
der's side,  were  wounded.  At  length  the  Macedonian  discipline 
and  valor  again  prevailed,  and  a  large  number  of  the  Persian  and 
Indian  horsemen  were  cut  down,  some  few  only  succeeding  in 
breaking  through  and  riding  away.  Relieved  of  these  obstinate 
enemies,  Alexander  again  formed  his  regiments  of  horse-guards, 
and  led  them  toward  Parmenio ;  but  by  this  time  that  general  also 
was  victorious.  Probably  the  news  of  Darius's  flight  had  reached 
Mazseus,  and  had  damped  the  ardor  of  the  Persian  right  wing, 
Avhile  the  tidings  of  their  comrades'  success  must  have  propor- 
tionally encouraged  the  Macedonian  forces  under  Parmenio.  His 
Thessalian  cavalry  particularly  distinguished  themselves  by  their 
gallantry  and  persevering  good  conduct;  and  by  the  time  that 
Alexander  had  ridden  up  to  Parmenio,  the  whole  Persian  army 
was  in  full  flight  from  the  field. 

It  was  of  the  deepest  importance  to  Alexander  to  secure  the 
person  of  Darius,  and  he  now  urged  on  the  pursuit.  The  River 
Lycus  was  between  the  field  of  battle  and  the  city  of  Arbela, 
whither  the  fugitives  directed  their  course,  and  the  passage  of  this 
river  was  even  more  destructive  to  the  Persians  than  the  swords 
and  spears  of  the  Macedonians  had  been  in  the  engagement.  The 
narrow  bridge  was  soon  choked  up  by  the  flying  thousands  who 
rushed  toward  it,  and  vast  numbers  of  the  Persians  threw  them- 
selves, or  were  hurried  by  others,  into  the  rapid  stream,  and  per- 
ished in  its  waters.  Darius  had  crossed  it,  and  had  ridden  on 
through  Arbela  without  halting.  Alexander  reached  the  city  on 
the  next  day,  and  made  himself  master  of  all  Darius's  treasure 
and  stores;  but  the  Persian  king,  unfortunatelj^  for  himself,  had 
fled  too  fast  for  his  conqueror.  He  had  only  escaped  to  perish  by 
the  treachery  of  his  Bactrian  satrap,  Bessus. 

A  few  days  after  the  battle,  Alexander  entered  Babylon,  "the 
oldest  seat  of  earthly  empire"  then  in  existence,  as  its  acknowl- 
edged lord  and  master.  There  were  yet  some  campaigns  of  his 
brief  and  bright  career  to  be  accomplished.  Central  Asia  was  yet 
to  witness  the  march  of  his  phalanx.     He  was  yet  to  effect  that 


THE    DEFEAT    OF    HANNIBAL  107 

conquest  of  Afghanistan  in  which  England  since  has  failed.  His 
generalship,  as  well  as  his  valor,  were  yet  to  be  signahzed  on  the 
banks  of  the  Hydaspes  and  the  field  of  Chillianwallah ;  and  he  was 
yet  to  precede  the  Queen  of  England  in  annexing  the  Punjab  to 
the  dominions  of  a  European  sovereign.  But  the  crisis  of  his  ca- 
reer was  reached ;  the  great  object  of  his  mission  was  accomplished ; 
and  the  ancient  Persian  empire,  which  once  menaced  all  the  nations 
of  the  earth  with  subjection,  was  irreparably  crushed  when  Alex- 
ander had  won  his  crowning  victory  at  Arbela.  [Creasy. 


CHAPTER    V 
THE   DEFEAT   OF   HANNIBAL 

THE   PUNIC   WARS  — THE    BATTLE   OF  METAURUS  —  THE 
SUPREMACY   OF   ROME 

S07    B.C. 

ASIA  beheld  with  terror  the  uninterrupted  progress  of  Alex- 
ander, the  sweep  of  whose  conquests  was  as  wide  as  that 
of  her  own  barbaric  kings,  or  of  the  Scythian  or  Chaldsean 
hordes;  but,  far  unUke  the  transient  whirlwinds  of  Asiatic  war- 
fare, the  advance  of  the  Macedonian  leader  was  no  less  deliberate 
than  rapid :  at  every  step  the  Greek  power  took  root,  and  the  lan- 
giTage  and  the  civilization  of  Greece  were  planted  from  the  shores 
of  the  -^gean  to  the  banks  of  the  Indus,  from  the  Caspian  and  the 
great  Hyrcanian  plain  to  the  cataracts  of  the  Nile ;  to  exist  actually 
for  nearly  a  thousand  years,  and  in  their  effects  to  endure  forever. 
But  though  the  influence  survived,  sovereignty  crumbled.  Un- 
der his  successors,  the  Selucidas,  the  vast  empire  diminished,  its 
might  declined.  In  its  place  Rome  was  rearing  her  head.  In  the 
year  2T5  B.C.,  the  latter,  from  the  Rubicon  to  the  Straits  of  Mes- 
sina, was  mistress  of  all  Italy.  Her  rival,  originally  her  friend, 
was  Carthage.     Conflict  between  these  two  powers  was  inevitable 


io8  GREAT   BATTLES    OF   ALL   NATIONS 

Three  ensued.  They  are  known  as  the  Punic  Avars.  The  first  re- 
sulted in  a  loss  to  Carthage  of  Sicily  and  Sardinia.  In  the  second 
Spain  went.  In  the  third  Carthage  was  razed  to  the  ground.  In 
the  course  of  the  second,  Hannibal,  the  Carthaginian  general,  in- 
vaded Italj-.  A  great  battle  was  fought.  It  took  place  at  a  stream 
still  called  the  Metauro.  Livy  called  it  the  most  memorable  of 
wars.  He  wrote  in  no  spirit  of  exaggeration ;  for  it  is  not  in  an- 
cient, but  in  modern  history,  that  parallels  for  its  incidents  and  its 
heroes  arc  to  be  found.  The  similitude  between  the  contest  which 
Rome  maintained  against  Hannibal,  and  that  which  England  was 
fur  many  years  engaged  in  against  Kapoleon,  has  not  passed  unob- 
served by  recent  historians.  "Twice,"  says  Arnold,  "has  there 
been  AA-itnessed  the  struggle  of  the  highest  individual  genius  against 
the  resources  and  institutions  of  a  great  nation,  and  in  both  cases 
the  nation  has  been  victorious.  For  seventeen  years  Hannibal 
strove  against  Rome ;  for  sixteen  years  Napoleon  Bonaparte  strove 
against  England :  the  efforts  of  the  first  ended  in  Zama ;  those  of 
the  second  in  AVaterloo."  One  point,  however,  of  the  similitude 
between  the  two  wars  has  scarcely  been  adequately  dwelt  on ;  that 
is,  the  remarkable  parallel  between  the  Roman  general  who  finally 
defeated  the  great  Carthaginian,  and  the  English  general  who  gave 
the  last  deadly  overthrow  to  the  French  emperor.  Scipio  and  Well- 
ington both  held  for  man}-  years  commands  of  high  importance, 
but  distant  from  the  main  theaters  of  warfare.  The  same  country 
was  the  scene  of  the  principal  military  career  of  each.  It  was  in 
Spain  that  Scipio,  like  Wellington,  successively  encoimtered  and 
overthrew  nearly  all  the  subordinate  generals  of  the  enemy  before 
being  opposed  to  the  chief  champion  and  conqueror  himself.  Both 
Scipio  and  WelHngton  restored  their  countrymen's  confidence  in 
arms  when  shaken  by  a  series  of  reverses,  and  each  of  them  closed 
a  long  and  perilous  war  bj'  a  complete  and  overwhelming  defeat 
of  the  chosen  leader  and  the  chosen  veterans  of  the  foe. 

Nor  is  the  parallel  between  them  limited  to  their  military  char- 
acters and  exploits.  Scipio,  like  Wellington,  became  an  important 
leader  of  the  aristocratic  party  among  his  countrj-men,  and  was 
exposed  to  the  unmeasured  invectives  of  the  violent  section  of  his 
political  antagonists.     When,  early  in  the  last  reign,  an  infuriated 


THE    DEFEAT   OF    HANNIBAL  109 

mob  assaulted  the  Duke  of  Wellington  in  the  streets  of  the  English 
capital  on  the  anniversary  of  Waterloo,  England  was  even  more 
disgraced  by  that  outrage  than  Rome  was  by  the  factious  accu- 
sations which  demagogues  brought  against  Scipio,  but  which  he 
proudly  repelled  on  the  day  of  trial  by  reminding  the  assembled 
people  that  it  was  the  anniversary  of  the  battle  of  Zama.  Happily, 
a  wiser  and  a  better  spirit  has  now  for  years  pervaded  all  classes 
of  our  community,  and  we  shall  be  spared  the  ignominy  of  having 
worked  out  to  the  end  the  parallel  of  national  ingratitude.  Scipio 
died  a  voluntary  exile  from  the  malevolent  turbulence  of  Rome. 
Englishmen  of  all  ranks  and  politics  have  now  long  united  in  affec- 
tionate admiration  of  our  modern  Scipio ;  and  even  those  who  have 
most  widely  differed  from  the  duke  on  legislative  or  administrative 
questions,  forget  what  they  deem  the  political  errors  of  that  time- 
honored  head,  while  they  gratefully  call  to  mind  the  laurels  that 
have  wreathed  it. 

Scipio  at  Zama  trampled  in  the  dust  the  power  of  Carthage,  but 
that  power  had  been  already  irreparably  shattered  in  another  field, 
where  neither  Scipio  nor  Hannibal  commanded.  When  the  Me- 
taurus  witnessed  the  defeat  and  death  of  Hasdrubal,  it  witnessed 
the  ruin  of  the  scheme  by  which  alone  Carthage  could  hope  to 
organize  decisive  success — the  scheme  of  enveloping  Rome  at  once 
from  the  north  and  the  south  of  Italy  by  two  chosen  armies,  led 
by  two  sons  of  Hamilcar.  That  battle  was  the  determining  crisis 
of  the  contest,  not  merely  between  Rome  and  Carthage,  but  between 
the  tAvo  great  families  of  the  world,  which  then  made  Italy  the 
arena  of  their  oft-renewed  contest  for  pre-eminence. 

The  French  historian,  Michelet,  whose  "Histoire  Romaine" 
would  have  been  invaluable  if  the  general  industry  and  accuracy 
of  the  writer  had  in  any  degree  equaled  his  originality  and  bril- 
liancy, eloquently  remarks,  *'It  is  not  without  reason  that  so  uni- 
versal and  vivid  a  remembrance  of  the  Punic  wars  has  dwelt  in  the 
memories  of  men.  They  formed  no  mere  struggle  to  determine 
the  lot  of  two  cities  or  two  empires ;  but  it  was  a  strife,  on  the 
event  of  which  depended  the  fate  of  two  races  of  mankind,  whether 
the  dominion  of  the  world  should  belong  to  the  Indo-Germanic  or 
to  the  Semitic  family  of  nations.     Bear  in  mind  that  the  first  of 


no  GREAT   BATTLES    OF    ALL   NATIONS 

these  comprises,  besides  the  Indians  and  the  Persians,  the  Greeks, 
the  Romans,  and  the  Germans.  In  the  other  are  ranked  the  Jews 
and  the  Arabs,  the  Phoenicians  and  the  Carthaginians.  On  the 
one  side  is  the  genius  of  heroism,  of  art,  and  legislation;  on  the 
other  is  the  spirit  of  industry,  of  commerce,  of  navigation.  The 
two  opposite  races  have  everywhere  come  into  contact,  everywhere 
into  hostility.  In  the  primitive  history  of  Persia  and  Chaldea, 
the  heroes  are  perpetually  engaged  in  combat  with  their  industrious 
and  perfidious  neighbors.  The  struggle  is  renewed  between  the 
Phoenicians  and  the  Greeks  on  every  coast  of  the  Mediterranean. 
The  Greek  supplants  the  Phoenician  in  all  his  factories,  all  his  colo- 
nies in  the  East :  soon  will  the  Roman  come,  and  do  likewise  in 
the  West.  Alexander  did  far  more  against  Tyre  than  Salmanasar 
or  Nabuchodonosor  had  done.  Not  content  with  crushing  her,  he 
took  care  that  she  never  should  revive;  for  he  founded  Alexandria 
as  her  substitute,  and  changed  forever  the  track  of  the  commerce 
of  the  world.  There  remained  Carthage — the  great  Carthage,  and 
her  mighty  empire— mighty  in  a  far  different  degree  than  Phoeni- 
cia's had  been.  Rome  annihilated  it.  Then  occurred  that  which 
has  no  parallel  in  history — an  entire  civilization  perished  at  one 
blow— banished,  like  a  falling  star.  The  "Periplus"  of  Hanno,  a 
few  coins,  a  score  of  lines  in  Plautus,  and,  lo,  all  that  remains  of 
the  Carthaginian  world ! 

"Many  generations  must  needs  pass  away  before  the  struggle 
between  the  two  races  could  be  renewed ;  and  the  Arabs,  that  for- 
midable rearguard  of  the  Semitic  world,  dashed  forth  from  their 
deserts.  The  conflict  between  the  two  races  then  became  the  con- 
flict of  two  religions.  Fortunate  was  it  that  those  daring  Saracenic 
cavaliers  encountered  in  the  East  the  impregnable  walls  of  Constan- 
tinople, in  the  West  the  chivalrous  valor  of  Charles  Martel,  and  the 
sword  of  the  Cid.  The  Crusades  were  the  natural  reprisals  for  the 
Arab  invasions,  and  form  the  last  epoch  of  that  great  struggle 
between  the  two  principal  families  of  the  human  race." 

It  is  difficult,  amid  the  glimmering  light  supplied  by  the  allu- 
sions of  the  classical  writers,  to  gain  a  full  idea  of  the  character 
and  institutions  of  Rome's  great  rival.  But  we  can  perceive  how 
inferior  Carthage  was  to  her  competitor  in  military  resources,  and 


THE    DEFEAT    OF    HANNIBAL  in 

how  far  less  fitted  than  Rome  she  was  to  become  the  founder  of 
centrahzed  and  centralizing  dominion,  that  should  endure  for  cent- 
uries, and  fuse  into  imperial  unity  the  narrow  nationahties  of  the 
ancient  races  that  dwelt  around  and  near  the  shores  of  the  Medi- 
terranean Sea. 

Carthage  was  originally  neither  the  most  ancient  nor  the  most 
powerful  of  the  numerous  colonies  which  the  Phoenicians  planted 
on  the  coast  of  Northern  Africa.  But  her  advantageous  position, 
the  excellence  of  her  constitution  (of  which,  though  ill-informed  as 
to  its  details,  we  know  that  it  commanded  the  admiration  of  Aris- 
totle), and  the  commercial  and  political  energy  of  her  citizens,  gave 
her  the  ascendency  over  Hippo,  Utica,  Leptis,  and  her  other  sister 
PhcBnician  cities  in  those  regions ;  and  she  finally  reduced  them  to 
a  condition  of  dependency,  similar  to  that  which  the  subject  allies 
of  Athens  occupied  relatively  to  that  once  imperial  city.  When 
Tyre  and  Sidon,  and  the  other  cities  of  Phoenicia  itself,  sank  from 
independent  republics  into  mere  vassal  states  of  the  great  Asiatic 
monarchies,  and  obeyed  by  turns  a  Babylonian,  a  Persian,  and  a 
Macedonian  master,  their  power  and  their  traffic  rapidly  declined, 
and  Carthage  succeeded  to  the  important  maritime  and  commercial 
character  which  they  had  previously  maintained.  The  Carthagin- 
ians did  not  seek  to  compete  with  the  Greeks  on  the  northeastern 
shores  of  the  Mediterranean,  or  in  the  three  inland  seas  which  are 
connected  with  it ;  but  they  maintained  an  active  intercourse  with 
the  Phoenicians,  and  through  them  with  Lower  and  Central  Asia ; 
and  they,  and  they  alone,  after  the  decline  and  fall  of  Tyre,  navi- 
gated the  waters  of  the  Atlantic.  They  had  the  monopoly  of  all 
the  commerce  of  the  world  that  was  carried  on  beyond  the  Straits 
of  Gibraltar.  "We  have  yet  extant  (in  a  Greek  translation)  the 
narrative  of  the  voyage  of  Hanno,  one  of  their  admirals,  along  the 
western  coast  of  Africa  as  far  as  Sierra  Leone ;  and  in  the  Latin 
poem  of  Festus  Avienus  frequent  references  are  made  to  the  rec- 
ords of  the  voyages  of  another  celebrated  Carthaginian  admiral, 
Himilco,  who  had  explored  the  northwestern  coast  of  Europe. 
Our  own  islands  are  mentioned  by  Himilco  as  the  lands  of  the 
Hiberni  and  Albioni.  It  is  indeed  certain  that  the  Carthaginians 
frequented  the  Cornish  coast  (as  the  Phoenicians  had  done  before 


I.I2  GREAT   BATTLES   OF   ALL   NATIONS 

them),  for  the  purpose  of  procuring  tin;  and  there  is  every  reason 
to  believe  that  they  sailed  as  far  as  the  coasts  of  the  Baltic  for 
amber.  When  it  is  remembered  that  the  mariner's  compa,ss  was 
unknown  in  those  ages,  the  boldness  and  skill  of  the  seamen  of 
Carthage,  and  the  enterprise  of  her  merchants,  may  be  paralleled 
with  any  achievements  that  the  history  of  modern  navigation  and 
commerce  can  produce. 

In  their  Atlantic  voyages  along  the  African  shores,  the  Cartha- 
ginians followed  the  double  object  of  traffic  and  colonization.  The 
numerous  settlements  that  were  planted  by  them  along  the  coast 
from  Morocco  to  Senegal  provided  for  the  needy  members  of  the 
constantly  increasing  population  of  a  great  commercial  capital,  and 
also  strengthened  the  influence  which  Carthage  exercised  among 
the  tribes  of  the  African  coast.  Besides  her  fleets,  her  caravans 
gave  her  a  large  and  lucrative  trade  with  the  native  Africans; 
nor  must  we  limit  our  belief  of  the  extent  of  the  Carthaginian 
trade  with  the  tribes  of  Central  and  Western  Africa  by  the  nar- 
rowness of  the  commercial  intercourse  which  civilized  nations  of 
modern  times  have  been  able  to  create  in  those  regions. 

Although  essentially  a  mercantile  and  seafaring  people,  the 
Carthaginians  by  no  means  neglected  agriculture.  On  the  con- 
trary-, the  whole  of  their  territory  was  cultivated  like  a  garden. 
The  fertility  of  the  soil  repaid  the  skill  and  toil  bestowed  on  it ;  and 
every  invader,  from  Agathocles  to  Scipio  ^milianus,  was  struck 
with  admiration  at  the  rich  pasture  lands  carefully  irrigated,  the 
abundant  harvests,  the  luxuriant  vineyards,  the  plantations  of  fig 
and  olive  trees,  the  thriving  villages,  the  populous  towns,  and  the 
splendid  villas  of  the  wealthy  Carthaginians,  through  which  his 
march  lay,  as  long  as  he  was  on  Carthaginian  ground. 

Although  the  Carthaginians  abandoned  the  JEgean  and  the 
Pontus  to  the  Greek,  they  were  by  no  means  disposed  to  relin- 
quish to  those  rivals  the  commerce  and  the  dominion  of  the  coasts 
of  the  Mediterranean  westward  of  Italy.  For  centuries  the  Cartha- 
ginians strove  to  make  themselves  masters  of  the  islands  that  lie 
between  Italy  and  Spain.  They  acquired  the  Balearic  Islands, 
where  the  principal  harbor,  Port  Mahon,  still  bears  the  name  of 
a  Carthaginian  admiral.     They  succeeded  in  reducing  the  great 


THE    DEFEAT    OF    HANNIBAL  I13 

part  of  Sardinia;  but  Sicily  could  never  be  brought  into  their 
power.  They  repeatedly  invaded  that  island,  and  nearly  overran 
it;  but  the  resistance  which  was  opposed  to  them  by  the  Syra- 
cusans  under  Gelon,  Dionysius,  Timoleon,  and  Agathocles,  pre- 
served the  island  from  becoming  Punic,  though  many  of  its  cities 
remained  under  the  Carthaginian  rule  until  Rome  finally  settled 
the  question  to  whom  Sicily  was  to  belong  by  conquering  it  for 
herself. 

With  so  many  elements  of  success,  with  almost  unbounded 
wealth,  with  commercial  and  maritime  activity,  with  a  fertile  ter- 
ritory, with  a  capital  city  of  almost  impregnable  strength,  with 
a  constitution  that  insured  for  centuries  the  blessing  of  social  order, 
with  an  aristocracy  singularly  fertile  in  men  of  the  highest  genius, 
Carthage  yet  failed  signally  and  calamitously  in  her  contest  for 
power  with  Rome.  One  of  the  immediate  causes  of  this  may  seem 
to  have  been  the  want  of  firmness  among  her  citizens,  which  made 
them  terminate  the  first  Punic  war  by  begging  peace,  sooner  than 
endure  any  longer  the  hardships  and  burdens  caused  by  a  state  of 
warfare,  although  their  antagonists  had  suffered  far  more  severely 
than  themselves.  Another  cause  was  the  spii'it  of  faction  among 
their  leading  men,  which  prevented  Hannibal  in  the  second  war 
from  being  properlj^  re-enforced  and  supported.  But  there  were 
also  more  general  causes  why  Carthage  proved  inferior  to  Rome. 
These  were  her  position  relatively  to  the  mass  of  the  inhabitants  of 
the  country  which  she  ruled,  and  her  habit  of  trusting  to  mercenary 
armies  in  her  wars. 

Our  clearest  information  as  to  the  different  races  of  men  in 
and  about  Carthage  is  derived  from  Diodorus  Siculus.  That 
historian  enumerates  four  different  races:  first,  he  mentions  the 
Phoenicians  who  dwelt  in  Carthage;  next,  he  speaks  of  the  Liby- 
Phoenicians:  these,  he  tells  us,  dwelt  in  many  of  the  maritime 
cities,  and  were  connected  by  intermarriages  with  the  Phoenicians, 
which  was  the  cause  of  their  compound  name ;  thirdly,  he  mentions 
the  Libyans,  the  bulk  and  the  most  ancient  part  of  the  population, 
hating  the  Carthaginians  intensely  on  account  of  the  oppressiveness 
of  their  domination;  lastly,  he  names  the  Numidians,  the  nomad 
tribes  of  the  frontier. 


114  GREAT   BATTLES   OF   ALL   NATIONS 

It  is  evident,  from  this  description,  that  the  native  Libyans 
were  a  subject  class,  without  franchise  or  pohtical  rights;  and, 
accordingly,  we  find  no  instance  specified  in  history  of  a  Libyan 
holding  political  office  or  mihtary  command.  The  half-castes,  the 
Liby-Phoenicians,  seem  to  have  been  sometimes  sent  out  as  colo- 
nists; but  it  may  be  inferred,  from  what  Diodorus  says  of  their 
residence,  that  they  had  not  the  right  of  the  citizenship  of  Car- 
thage; and  only  a  single  solitary  case  occurs  of  one  of  this  race 
being  intrusted  -with  authority,  and  that,  too,  not  emanating  from 
the  home  government.  This  is  the  instance  of  the  officer  sent  by 
Hannibal  to  Sicily  after  the  fall  of  Syracuse,  whom  Polybius  calls 
Myttinus  the  Libyan,  but  whom,  from  the  fuller  account  in  Livy, 
we  find  to  have  been  a  Liby-Phoenician ;  and  it  is  expressly  men- 
tioned what  indignation  was  felt  by  the  Carthaginian  commanders 
in  the  island  that  this  half-caste  should  control  their  operations. 

With  respect  to  the  composition  of  their  armies,  it  is  observable 
that,  though  thirsting  for  extended  empire,  and  though  some  of 
her  leading  men  became  generals  of  the  highest  order,  the  Car- 
thaginians, as  a  people,  were  anything  but  personally  warlike.  As 
long  as  they  could  hire  mercenaries  to  fight  for  them,  they  had  little 
appetite  for  the  irksome  training  and  the  loss  of  valuable  time  which 
military  service  would  have  entailed  on  themselves. 

As  Michelet  remarks,  "The  life  of  an  industrious  merchant,  of 
a  Carthaginian,  was  too  precious  to  be  risked,  as  long  as  it  was 
possible  to  substitute  advantageously  for  it  that  of  a  barbarian  from 
Spain  or  Gaul.  Carthage  knew,  and  could  tell  to  a  drachma,  what 
the  life  of  a  man  of  each  nation  came  to.  A  Greek  was  worth 
more  than  a  Campanian,  a  Campanian  worth  more  than  a  Gaul  or 
a  Spaniard.  When  once  this  tariff  of  blood  was  correctly  made 
out,  Carthage  began  a  war  as  a  mercantile  speculation.  She  tried 
to  make  conquests  in  the  hope  of  getting  new  mines  to  work,  or 
to  open  fresh  markets  for  her  exports.  In  one  venture  she  could 
afford  to  spend  fifty  thousand  mercenaries,  in  another  rather  more. 
If  the  retui'ns  were  good,  there  was  no  regret  felt  for  the  capital 
that  had  been  sunk  in  the  investment;  more  money  got  more  men, 
and  all  went  on  well." 

Armies  composed  of  foreign  mercenaries  have  in  all  ages  been 


THE    DEFEAT    OF    HANNIBAL  115 

as  formidable  to  their  employers  as  to  the  enemy  against  whom 
they  were  directed.  We  know  of  one  occasion  (between  the  first 
and  second  Punic  wars)  when  Carthage  was  brought  to  the  very 
brink  of  destruction  by  a  revolt  of  her  foreign  troops.  Other 
mutinies  of  the  same  kind  must  from  time  to  time  have  occurred. 
Probably  one  of  these  was  the  cause  of  the  comparative  weakness 
of  Carthage  at  the  time  of  the  Athenian  expedition  against  Syra- 
cuse, so  different  from  the  energy  with  which  she  attacked  Gelon 
half  a  century  earlier,  and  Dionysius  half  a  century  later.  And 
even  when  we  consider  her  armies  with  reference  only  to  their 
eflSciency  in  warfare,  we  perceive  at  once  the  inferiority  of  such 
bands  of  condottieri,  brought  together  without  any  common  bond 
of  origin,  tactics,  or  cause,  to  the  legions  of  Rome,  which,  at  the 
time  of  the  Punic  wars,  were  raised  from  the  very  flower  of  a  hardy 
agricultural  population,  trained  in  the  strictest  discipline,  habituated 
to  victory,  and  animated  by  the  most  resolute  patriotism.  And  this 
shows,  also,  the  transcendency  of  the  genius  of  Hannibal,  which 
could  form  such  discordant  materials  into  a  compact  organized  force 
and  inspire  them  with  the  spirit  of  patient  discipline  and  loyalty  to 
their  chief,  so  that  they  were  true  to  him  in  his  adverse  as  well  as 
in  his  prosperous  fortunes;  and  throughout  the  checkered  series 
of  his  campaigns  no  panic  rout  ever  disgraced  a  division  under  his 
command,  no  mutiny,  or  even  attempt  at  mutiny,  was  ever  known 
in  his  camp;  and  finally,  after  fifteen  years  of  Italian  warfare,  his 
men  followed  their  old  leader  to  Zama,  "with  no  fear  and  little 
hope,"  and  there,  on  that  disastrous  field,  stood  firm  around  him, 
his  Old  Guard,  till  Scipio's  Numidian  allies  came  up  on  their  flank, 
when  at  last,  surrounded  and  overpowered,  the  veteran  battalions 
sealed  their  devotion  to  their  general  by  their  blood ! 

"But  if  Hannibal's  genius  may  be  likened  to  the  Homeric  god, 
who,  in  his  hatred  to  the  Trojans,  rises  from  the  deep  to  rally  the 
fainting  Greeks  and  to  lead  them  against  the  enemy,  so  the  calm 
courage  with  which  Hector  met  his  more  than  human  adversary 
in  his  country's  cause  is  no  unworthy  image  of  the  unyielding 
magnanimity  displayed  by  the  aristocracy  of  Rome.  As  Hannibal 
utterly  eclipses  Carthago,  so,  on  the  contrary,  Fabius,  Marcellus, 
Claudius  Nero,  even  Scipio  himself,  are  as  nothing  when  compared 


ii6       GREAT  BATTLES  OF  ALL  NATIONS 

to  the  spirit,  and  ^visdom,  and  power  of  Rome.  The  Senate,  which 
voted  its  thanks  to  its  poHtical  enemy,  Varro,  after  his  disastrous 
defeat,  'because  he  had  not  despaired  of  the  commonwealth,'  and 
which  disdained  either  to  soHcit,  or  to  reprove,  or  to  threaten,  or 
in  any  way  to  notice  the  twelve  colonies  which  had  refused  their 
accustomed  supplies  of  men  for  the  army,  is  far  more  to  be  honored 
than  the  conqueror  of  Zama.  This  we  should  the  more  carefully 
bear  in  mind,  because  our  tendency  is  to  admire  individual  great- 
ness far  more  than  national;  and,  as  no  single  Roman  will  bear 
comparison  to  Hannibal,  we  are  apt  to  murmur  at  the  event  of 
the  contest,  and  to  think  that  the  victory  was  awarded  to  the  least 
worthy  of  the  combatants.  On  the  contrary,  never  was  the  wisdom 
of  God's  providence  more  manifest  than  in  the  issue  of  the  struggle 
between  Rome  and  Carthage.  It  was  clearlj-  for  the  good  of  man- 
kind that  Hannibal  should  be  conquered ;  his  triumi^h  would  have 
stopped  the  progress  of  the  world;  for  great  men  can  only  act 
permanently  by  forming  great  nations;  and  no  one  man,  even 
though  it  were  Hannibal  himself,  can  in  one  generation  effect 
such  a  work.  But  where  the  nation  has  been  merely  enkindled 
for  a  while  by  a  great  man's  spirit,  the  light  passes  away  with 
him  who  communicated  it;  and  the  nation,  when  he  is  gone,  is 
like  a  dead  body,  to  which  magic  power  had  for  a  moment  given 
unnatural  life :  when  the  charm  has  ceased,  the  body  is  cold  and 
stiff  as  before.  He  who  grieves  over  the  battle  of  Zama  should 
carry  on  his  thoughts  to  a  period  thirty  years  later,  when  Hannibal 
must,  in  the  course  of  nature,  have  been  dead,  and  consider  how 
the  isolated  Phcenician  cit}^  of  Carthage  was  fitted  to  receive  and 
to  consolidate  the  civilization  of  Greece,  or  bj'^  its  laws  and  institu- 
tions to  bind  together  barbarians  of  every  race  and  language  into 
an  organized  empire,  and  prepare  them  for  becoming,  when  that 
empire  was  dissolved,  the  free  members  of  the  commonwealth  of 
Christian  Europe." 

It  was  in  the  spring  of  207  B.C.  that  Hasdrubal,  after  skillfully 
disentangling  himself  from  the  Roman  forces  in  Spain,  and  after 
a  march  conducted  with  great  judgment  and  little  loss  through 
the  interior  of  Gaul  and  the  passes  of  the  Alps,  appeared  in  the 
country  that  now  is  the  north  of  Lombardy  at  the  head  of  troops 


THE    DEFEAT    OF    HANNIBAL  11? 

which  he  had  partly  brought  out  of  Spain  and  partly  levied  among 
the  Gauls  and  Ligurians  on  his  way.  At  this  time  Hannibal, 
with  his  unconquered  and  seemingly  unconquerable  army,  had 
been  eight  years  in  Italy,  executing  with  strenuous  ferocity  the 
vow  of  hatred  to  Rome  which  had  been  sworn  b}"  him  Avhile  yet  a 
child  at  the  bidding  of  his  father  Hamilcar ;  who,  as  he  boasted, 
had  trained  up  his  three  sons,  Hannibal,  Hasdrubal,  and  Mago, 
like  three  lion's  whelps,  to  prey  upon  the  Romans.  But  Hanni- 
bal's latter  campaigns  had  not  been  signalized  by  smy  such  great 
victories  as  marked  the  first  years  of  his  invasion  of  Italy.  The 
stern  spirit  of  Roman  resolution,  ever  highest  in  disaster  and 
danger,  had  neither  bent  nor  despaired  beneath  the  merciless 
blows  which  "the  dire  African"  dealt  her  in  rapid  succession  at 
Trebia,  at  Thrasymene,  and  at  Cannae.  Her  population  was 
thinned  by  repeated  slaughter  in  the  field;  poverty  and  actual 
scarcity  ground  down  the  survivors,  through  the  fearful  ravages 
which  Hannibal's  cavalry  spread  through  their  cornfields,  their 
pasture  lands,  and  their  vinej^ards;  manj-  of  her  allies  went  over 
to  the  invader's  side,  and  new  clouds  of  foreign  war  threatened 
her  from  Macedonia  and  Gaul.  But  Rome  receded  not.  Rich 
and  poor  among  her  citizens  vied  with  each  other  in  devotion  to 
their  coimtry.  The  wealthy  placed  their  stores,  and  all  placed 
their  lives,  at  the  state's  disposal.  And  though  Hannibal  could 
not  be  driven  out  of  Italy,  though  every  year  brought  its  sufferings 
and  sacrifices,  Rome  felt  that  her  constancy  had  not  been  exerted 
in  vain.  If  she  was  weakened  by  the  continued  strife,  so  was 
Hannibal  also;  and  it  was  clear  that  the  unaided  resources  of  his 
army  were  unequal  to  the  task  of  her  destruction.  The  single 
deer-hound  could  not  pull  down  the  quarry  which  he  had  so  fu- 
riously assailed.  Rome  not  only  stood  fiercely  at  haj,  but  had 
pressed  back  and  gored  her  antagonist,  that  still,  however,  watched 
her  in  act  to  spring.  She  was  weary,  and  bleeding  at  every  pore ; 
and  there  seemed  to  be  little  hope  of  her  escape,  if  the  other  hound 
of  old  Hamilcar's  race  should  come  up  in  time  to  aid  his  brother 
in  the  death-grapple. 

Hasdrubal  had  commanded  the  Carthaginian  armies  in  Spain 
for  some  time  with  varying  but  generally  unfavorable  fortune.     He 


118  GREAT   BATTLES   OF   ALL   NATIONS 

had  not  the  full  authority  over  the  Punic  forces  in  that  country 
which  his  brother  and  his  father  had  previously  exercised.  The 
faction  at  Carthage  •which  was  at  feud  with  his  family  succeeded 
in  fettering  and  interfering  with  his  power;  and  other  generals 
were  from  time  to  time  sent  into  Spain,  whose  errors  and  mis- 
conduct caused  the  reverses  that  Hasdrubal  met  with.  This  is 
expressly  attested  by  the  Greek  historian  Polybius,  who  was  the 
intimate  friend  of  the  younger  Africanus,  and  drew  his  infor- 
mation respecting  the  second  Punic  war  from  the  best  possible 
authorities.  Livy  gives  a  long  narrative  of  campaigns  between 
the  Roman  commanders  in  Spain  and  Hasdrubal,  which  is  so 
palpably  deformed  by  fictions  and  exaggerations  as  to  be  hardly 
deserving  of  attention. 

It  is  clear  that,  in  the  year  208  B.C.,  at  least,  Hasdrubal  out- 
maneuvered  PubHus  Scipio,  who  held  the  command  of  the  Roman 
forces  in  Spain,  and  whose  object  was  to  prevent  him  from  passing 
the  Pyrenees  and  marching  upon  Italy.  Scipio  expected  that  Has- 
drubal would  attempt  the  nearest  route  along  the  coast  of  the  Medi- 
terranean, and  he  therefore  carefully  fortified  and  guarded  the 
passes  of  the  eastern  Pyrenees.  But  Hasdrubal  passed  these 
mountains  near  their  western  extremity ;  and  then,  with  a  consid- 
erable force  of  Spanish  infantry,  with  a  small  number  of  African 
troops,  with  some  elephants  and  much  treasure,  he  marched,  not 
directly  toward  the  coast  of  the  Mediterranean,  but  in  a  northeast- 
em  line  toward  the  center  of  Gaul.  He  halted  for  the  winter  in 
the  territory  of  the  Arvemi,  the  modern  Auvergne,  and  concihated 
or  purchased  the  good  will  of  the  Gauls  in  that  region  so  far  that 
he  not  only  found  friendly  ■v^^nter  quarters  among  them,  but  great 
numbers  of  them  enlisted  under  him;  and,  on  the  approach  of 
spring,  marched  with  him  to  invade  Italy. 

By  thus  entering  Gaul  at  the  southwest,  and  avoiding  its  south- 
em  maritime  districts,  Hasdrubal  kept  the  Romans  in  complete 
ignorance  of  his  precise  operations  and  movements  in  that  country ; 
all  that  they  knew  was  that  Hasdrubal  had  baffled  Scipio's  at- 
tempts to  detain  him  in  Spain ;  that  he  had  crossed  the  Pyrenees 
with  soldiers,  elephants,  and  money,  and  that  he  was  raising  fresh 
forces  among  the  Gauls.     The  spring  was  sure  to  bring  Him  into 


THE    DEFEAT    OF    HANNIBAL  119 

Italj',  and  then  would  come  the  real  tempest  of  the  war,  when  from 
the  north  and  from  the  south  the  two  Carthaginian  armies,  each 
under  a  son  of  the  Thunderbolt,  were  to  gather  together  around  the 
seven  hills  of  Rome. 

In  this  emergency  the  Romans  looked  among  themselves  ear- 
nestly and  anxiously  for  leaders  fit  to  meet  the  perils  of  the  coming 
campaign. 

The  senate  recommended  the  people  to  elect,  as  one  of  their 
consuls,  Caius  Claudius  Nero,  a  patrician  of  one  of  the  famihes  of 
the  great  Claudian  house.  Nero  had  served  during  the  preceding 
3'ears  of  the  war  both  against  Hannibal  in  Italy  and  against  Has- 
drubal  in  Spain ;  but  it  is  remarkable  that  the  histories  which  we 
possess  record  no  successes  as  having  been  achieved  by  him  either 
before  or  after  his  great  campaign  of  the  Metaurus,  It  proves 
much  for  the  sagacity  of  the  leading  men  of  the  senate  that  they 
recognized  in  Nero  the  energy  and  spirit  which  were  required  at 
this  crisis,  and  it  is  equally  creditable  to  the  patriotism  of  the 
people  that  they  followed  the  advice  of  the  senate  by  electing  a 
general  who  had  no  showy  exploits  to  recommend  him  to  then- 
choice. 

It  was  a  matter  of  greater  diflBculty  to  find  a  second  consul;  the 
laws  required  that  one  consul  should  be  a  plebeian ;  and  the  plebeian 
nobility  had  been  f earf ullj^  thinned  by  the  events  of  the  war.  AVhile 
the  senators  anxiously  deliberated  among  themselves  what  fit  col- 
league for  Nero  could  be  nommated  at  the  coming  comitia,  and 
sorrowfully  recalled  the  names  of  MarceUus,  Gracchus,  and  other 
plebeian  generals  who  were  no  more,  one  taciturn  and  moody  old 
man  sat  in  sullen  apathy  among  the  conscript  fathers.  This  was 
Marcus  Livius,  who  had  been  consul  in  the  j^ear  before  the  begin- 
ning of  this  war,  and  had  then  gained  a  \actory  over  the  Illj^rians. 
After  his  consulship  he  had  been  impeached  before  the  people  on  a 
charge  of  peculation  and  unfair  division  of  the  spoils  among  his 
soldiers;  the  verdict  was  unjusth*  given  against  him,  and  the  sense 
of  this  wrong,  and  of  the  indignity  thus  put  upon  him,  had  rankled 
unceasingly  in  the  bosom  of  Livius,  so  that  for  eight  years  after  his 
trial  he  had  lived  in  seclusion  in  his  country-seat,  taking  no  part  in 
any  affairs  of  state.     Latterly  the  censors  had  compelled  him  to 


I20  GREAT   BATTLES    OF    ALL    NATIONS 

come  to  Rome  and  resume  his  place  in  the  senate,  where  he  used 
to  sit  gloomily  apart,  giving  only  a  silent  vote.  At  last  an  unjust 
accusation  against  one  of  his  near  kinsmen  made  him  break  silence, 
and  he  harangued  the  house  in  words  of  weight  and  sense,  which 
drew  attention  to  him,  and  taught  the  senators  that  a  strong  spirit 
dwelt  beneath  that  unimposing  exterior.  Now,  while  they  were 
debating  on  what  noble  of  a  plebeian  house  was  fit  to  assume  the 
perilous  honors  of  the  consulate,  some  of  the  elder  of  them  looked 
on  Marcus  Livius,  and  remembered  that  in  the  very  last  triumph 
which  had  been  celebrated  in  the  streets  of  Rome,  this  grim  old 
man  had  sat  in  the  car  of  victory,  and  that  he  had  offered  the  last 
thanksgiving  sacrifice  for  the  success  of  the  Roman  arms  which 
had  bled  before  Capitoline  Jove.  There  had  been  no  triumphs 
since  Hannibal  came  into  Italy.  The  Illyrian  campaign  of  Livius 
was  the  last  that  had  been  so  honored ;  perhaps  it  might  be  destined 
for  him  now  to  renew  the  long-interrupted  series.  The  senators 
resolved  that  Livius  should  be  put  in  nomination  as  consul  with 
Nero;  the  people  were  willing  to  elect  him:  the  only  opposition 
came  from  himself.  He  taunted  them  with  their  inconsistencj^  in 
honoring  the  man  whom  they  had  convicted  of  a  base  crime.  "If 
I  am  innocent,"  said  he,  "why  did  you  place  such  a  stain  on  me? 
If  I  am  guilty,  why  am  I  more  fit  for  a  second  consulship  than  I 
was  for  my  first  one?"  The  other  senators  remonstrated  with  him, 
urging  the  example  of  the  great  Camillus,  who,  after  an  unjust  con- 
demnation on  a  similar  charge,  both  served  and  saved  his  country. 
At  last  Livius  ceased  to  object ;  and  Caius  Claudius  Nero  and  Mar- 
cus Livius  were  chosen  consuls  of  Rome. 

A  quarrel  had  long  existed  between  the  two  consuls,  and  the 
senators  strove  to  effect  a  reconciliation  between  them  before  the 
campaign.  Here  again  Livius  for  a  long  time  obstinately  resisted 
the  ^vish  of  his  fellow-senators.  He  said  it  was  best  for  the  state 
that  he  and  Nero  should  continue  to  liate  one  another.  Each  would 
do  his  duty  better  when  he  knew  that  he  was  watched  by  an  enemy 
in  the  person  of  his  own  colleague.  At  last  the  entreaties  of  the 
senate  prevailed,  and  Livius  consented  to  forego  the  feud,  and  to 
co-operate  with  Nero  in  preparing  for  the  coming  struggle. 

As  soon  as  the  winter  snows  were  thawed,   Hasdrubal  com- 


THE    DEFEAT   OF    HANNIBAL  121 

menced  his  march  from  Auvergne  to  the  Alps.  He  experienced 
none  of  tlie  difficulties  which  his  brother  had  met  with  from  the 
momitain  tribes.  Hannibal's  army  had  been  the  first  body  of 
regular  troops  that  had  ever  traversed  their  regions ;  and,  as  wild 
animals  assail  a  traveler,  the  natives  rose  against  it  instinctively,  in 
imagined  defense  of  their  own  habitations,  which  they  supposed  to 
be  the  objects  of  Carthaginian  ambition.  But  the  fame  of  the  war, 
with  which  Italy  had  now  been  convulsed  for  twelve  years,  had 
penetrated  into  the  Alpine  passes,  and  the  mountaineers  now  under- 
stood that  a  mighty  city  southward  of  the  Alps  was  to  be  attacked 
by  the  troops  whom  they  saw  marching  among  them.  They  now 
not  only  opposed  no  resistance  to  the  passage  of  Hasdrubal,  but 
many  of  them,  out  of  love  of  enterprise  and  plunder,  or  allured  by 
the  high  pay  that  he  offered,  took  service  with  him;  and  thus  he 
advanced  upon  Italy  with  an  army  that  gathered  strength  at  every 
league.  It  is  said,  also,  that  some  of  the  most  imijortant  engineer- 
ing works  which  Hannibal  had  constructed  were  found  by  Hasdru- 
bal still  in  existence,  and  materially  favored  the  speed  of  his  ad- 
vance. He  thus  emerged  into  Itah'  from  the  AljDine  valleys  much 
sooner  than  had  been  anticipated.  Many  warriors  of  the  Ligurian 
tribes  joined  him ;  and,  crossing  the  River  Po,  he  marched  down  its 
southern  bank  to  the  city  of  Placentia,  which  he  wished  to  secure  as 
a  base  for  his  future  operations.  Placentia  resisted  him  as  bravely 
as  it  had  resisted  Hannibal  twelve  j^ears  before,  and  for  some  time 
Hasdrubal  was  occupied  with  a  fruitless  siege  before  its  walls. 

Six  armies  were  levied  for  the  defense  of  Italy  when  the  long- 
dreaded  approach  of  Hasdrubal  was  announced.  Seventy  thou- 
sand Romans  served  in  the  fifteen  legions,  of  which,  with  an  equal 
number  of  Italian  allies,  those  armies  and  the  garrisons  were  com- 
posed. Upward  of  thirty  thousand  more  Romans  were  serving  in 
Sicily,  Sardinia,  and  Spain.  The  whole  number  of  Roman  citizens 
of  an  age  fit  for  military  duty  scarcelj^  exceeded  a  hundred  and 
thirty  thousand.  The  census  taken  before  the  commencement  of 
the  war  had  shown  a  total  of  two  hundred  and  seventy  thousand, 
which  had  been  diminished  by  more  than  half  during  twelve  years. 
These  numbers  are  fearfuUy  emphatic  of  the  extremity  to  which 
Rome  was  reduced,  and  of  her  gigantic  efforts  in  that  great  agony 


122  GREAT   BATTLES    OF  ALL   NATIONS 

of  hei-  fate.  Not  merely  men,  but  money  and  military  stores,  were 
drained  to  the  utmost,  and  if  the  armies  of  that  year  should  be 
swept  off  by  a  repetition  of  the  slaughters  of  Thrasymene  and 
Cannae,  all  felt  that  Rome  would  cease  to  exist.  Even  if  the  cam- 
paign were  to  be  marked  by  no  decisive  success  on  either  side,  her 
ruin  seemed  certain.  In  South  Italy,  Hannibal  had  either  detached 
Rome's  aUies  from  her  or  had  impoverished  them  by  the  ravages  of 
his  army.  If  Hasdrubal  could  have  done  the  same  in  Upper  Italy, 
if  Etruria,  Umbria,  and  Northern  Latium  had  either  revolted  or 
been  laid  waste,  Rome  must  have  sunk  beneath  sheer  starvation ; 
for  the  hostile  or  desolated  territory  would  have  yielded  no  supplies 
of  com  for  her  population,  and  money  to  purchase  it  from  abroad 
there  was  none.  Instant  victory  was  a  matter  of  life  or  death. 
Three  of  her  six  armies  were  ordered  to  the  north,  but  the  first 
of  these  was  required  to  overawe  the  disaffected  Etruscan.  The 
second  army  of  the  north  was  pushed  forward,  under  Porcius, 
the  praetor,  to  meet  and  keep  in  check  the  advanced  troops  of 
Hasdrubal;  while  the  third,  the  grand  army  of  the  north,  which 
was  to  be  under  the  immediate  command  of  the  consul  Livius,  who 
had  the  chief  command  in  all  North  Italy,  advanced  more  slowly 
in  its  support.  There  were  similarlj'^  three  armies  in  the  south, 
under  the  orders  of  the  other  consul,  Claudius  Nero. 

The  lot  had  decided  that  Li\lus  was  to  be  opposed  to  Hasdrubal, 
and  that  Nero  should  face  Hannibal.  And  "when  aU  was  ordered 
as  themselves  thought  best,  the  two  consuls  went  forth  of  the  city 
each  his  several  way.  The  people  of  Rome  were  now  quite  other- 
wise affected  than  they  had  been  when  L.  ^milius  Paulus  and 
C.  Terentius  Varro  were  sent  against  Hannibal.  They  did  no 
longer  take  upon  them  to  direct  their  generals,  or  bid  them  dis- 
patch and  win  the  victory  betimes,  but  rather  they  stood  in  fear 
lest  all  diligence,  wisdom,  and  valor  should  prove  too  httle;  for 
since  few  years  had  passed  wherein  some  one  of  their  generals  had 
not  been  slain,  and  since  it  was  manifest  that,  if  either  of  these 
present  consuls  were  defeated,  or  put  to  the  worst,  the  two  Car- 
thaginians would  forthwith  join,  and  make  short  work  with  the 
other,  it  seemed  a  greater  happiness  than  could  be  expected  that 
each  of  them  should  return  home  victor,  and  come  off  with  honor 


THE    DEFEAT    OF    HANNIBAL  123 

from  such  might}'  opposition  as  he  was  Hke  to  find.     With  extreme 
difficulty  had   Rome   held  up  her  head  ever  since   the   battle  of 
Cannae;   though  it  were  so,  that  Hannibal  alone,  with  httle  help 
from  Carthage,  had  continued  the  war  in  Italy.     But  there  was 
now  arrived  another  son  of  Amilcar,  and  one  that,  in  his  present 
expedition,  had  seemed  a  man  of  more  sufficiency  than  Hannibal 
himself;   for  whereas,  in  that  long  and  dangerous  march  thorow 
barbarous   nations,    over  great   rivers  and  mountains  that  were 
thought  unpassable,  Hannibal  had  lost  a  great  part  of  his  army, 
this  Asdrubal,  in  the  same  places,  had  multiplied  his  numbers,  and 
gathering  the  people  that  he  found  in  the  way,  descended  from  the 
Alps  like  a  rowling  snowball,  far  greater  than  he  came  over  the 
Pyrenees  at  his  first  setting  out  of  Spain.     These  considerations 
and  the  like,  of  which  fear  presented  many  unto  them,  caused  the 
people  of  Rome  to  wait  upon  their  consuls  out  of  the  town,  like  a 
pensive  train  of  mourners,  thinking  upon  Marcellus  and  Crispinus, 
upon  whom,  in  the  like  sort,  they  had  given  attendance  the  last 
year,  but  saw  neither  of  them  return  alive  from  a  less  dangerous 
war.     Particularly  old  Q.  Fabius  gave  his  accustomed  advice  to 
M.  Livius,  that  he  should  abstain  from  giving  or  taking  battle  until 
he  well  understood  the  enemie's  condition.     But  the  consul  made 
him  a  froward  answer,  and  said  that  he  v»^ould  fight  the  very  first 
day,  for  that  he  thought  it  long  till  he  should  either  recover  his 
honor  by  victory,  or,  by  seeing  the  overthrow  of  his  own  unjust 
citizens,   satisfie  himself  with  the  joy  of  a  great  though  not  an 
honest  revenge.     But  his  meaning  was  better  than  his  vrords."* 
Hannibal  at  this  period  occupied  with  his  veteran  but  much- 
reduced  forces   the   extreme  south  of    Italy.      It   had  not    been 
expected  either  by  friend  or  foe  that  Hasdrubal  would  effect  hi^ 
passage  of  the  Alps  so  early  in  the  year  as  actually  occurred. 
And  even  when  Hannibal  learned  that  his  brother  was  in  Italy, 
and  had  advanced  as  far  as  Placentia,  he  was  obliged  to  pause  for 
further  intelligence  before  he  himself  commenced  active  operations, 
as  he  could  not  teU  whether  his  brother  might  not  be  invited  into 
Etruria,  to  aid  the  party  there  that  was  disaffected  to  Rome,  01 

*  Sir  Walter  Raleigh. 


124  GREAT    BATTLES    OF    ALL    NATIONS 

whether  he  would  march  down  by  the  Adriatic  Sea.     Hannibal 
led  his  troops  out  of  their  winter  quarters  in  Bruttium,  and  marched 
northward  as  far  as  Canusium.     Nero  had  his  headquarters  near 
V^enusia,  with  an  army  which  he  had  increased  to  forty  thousand 
foot  and  two  thousand  five  hundred  horse,  by  incorporating  under 
his  o^vn  command  some  of  the  legions  which  had  been  intended  to 
act  under  other  generals  in  the  south.     There  was  another  Roman 
army,  twenty  thousand  strong,  south  of  Hannibal,   at  Tarentum. 
The  strength  of  that  city  secured  this  Roman  force  from  any  at- 
tack by  Hannibal,   and  it  was  a  serious  matter  to  march  north- 
ward and  leave  it  in  his  rear,  free  to  act  against   all  his   depots 
and  alHes  in  the  friendly  part  of  Italy,  which  for  the  two  or  three 
last  campaigns  had  served  him  for  a  base  of  his  operations.     More- 
over, Nero's  army  was  so  strong  that  Hannibal  could   not   con- 
centrate troops  enough  to  assume  the  offensive  against  it  without 
weakening  his  garrisons,  and  relinquishing,  at  least  for  a  time,  his 
grasp   upon  the  southern   provinces.     To  do  this   before  he  was 
certainly  informed  of  his  brother's  operations  would  have  been  a 
useless  sacrifice,  as  Nero  could  retreat  before  him  upon  the  other 
Roman  armies  near  the  capital,  and  Hannibal  knew  by  experience 
that  a  mere  advance  of  his  army  upon  the  walls  of  Rome  would 
have  no  effect  on  the  fortunes  of  the  war.     In  the  hope,  probably, 
of  inducing  Nero   to   follow  him   and  of   gaining  an  opportunity 
of  outmaneuvering  the  Roman  consul  and  attacking  him  on  his 
march,  Hannibal  moved  into  Lucania,  and  then  back  into  Apuha; 
he  again  marched  down  into  Bruttium,  and  strengthened  his  army 
by  a  levy  of  recruits  in  that  district.     Nero  followed  him,  but  gave 
him  no  chance  of  assailing  him  at  a  disadvantage.     Some  partial 
encounters  seem  to  have  taken  place;   but  the  consul  could  not 
prevent  Hannibal's  junction  with  his  Bruttian  levies,  nor  could 
Hannibal  gain  an  opportunity  of  surprising  and  crushing  the  con- 
sul.    Hannibal  returned  to  his  former  headquarters  at  Canusium, 
and  halted  there  in  expectation  of  further  tidings  of  his  brother's 
movements.     Nero  also  resumed  his  former  position  in  observation 
of  the  Carthaginian  army. 

Meanwhile,  Hasdrubal  had  raised  the  siege  of  Placentia,  and 
was   advancing  toward  Arimiuum  on  the  Adriatic,   and  driving 


THE    DEFEAT    OF    HANNIBAL  125 

before  him  the  Roman  aimy  under  Porcius.  Nor  when  the  consul 
Livius  had  come  up,  and  united  the  second  and  third  armies  of  the 
north,  could  he  make  head  against  the  invaders.  The  Romans 
still  fell  back  before  Hasdrubal  beyond  Ariminum,  beyond  the 
Metaurus,  and  as  far  as  the  little  town  of  Sena,  to  the  southeast 
of  that  river.  Hasdrubal  was  not  unmindful  of  the  necessit}'  of 
acting  in  concert  with  his  brother.  He  sent  messengers  to  Hanni- 
bal to  announce  his  own  line  of  march,  and  to  propose  that  they 
should  unite  their  armies  in  South  Umbria  and  then  wheel  round 
against  Rome.  Those  messengers  traversed  the  greater  part  of 
Italy  in  safety,  but,  when  close  to  the  object  of  their  mission, 
were  captured  by  a  Roman  detachment;  and  Hasdrubal's  letier, 
detaihng  his  whole  plan  of  the  campaign,  was  laid,  not  in  his 
brother's  hands,  but  in  those  of  the  commander  of  the  Roman 
armies  of  the  south.  Nero  saw  at  once  the  full  importance  of  the 
crisis.  The  two  sons  of  Hamilcar  were  now  within  two  hundred 
miles  of  each  other,  and,  if  Rome  were  to  be  saved,  the  brothers 
must  never  meet  alive.  Nero  instantly  ordered  seven  thousand 
picked  men,  a  thousand  being  cavalry,  to  hold  themselves  in  readi- 
'ness  for  a  secret  expedition  against  one  of  Hannibal's  garrisons, 
and  as  soon  as  night  had  set  in  he  hurried  forward  on  his  bold 
enterprise;  but  he  quickly  left  the  southern  road  toward  Lucania, 
and,  wheeling  round,  pressed  northward  ^^dth  the  utmost  rapidity 
toward  Picenum.  He  had,  during  the  preceding  afternoon,  sent 
messengers  to  Rome,  who  were  to  laj^  Hasdrubal's  letters  before 
the  senate.  There  was  a  law  forbidding  a  consul  to  make  war  or 
march  his  army  beyond  the  limits  of  the  province  assigned  to  him ; 
but  in  such  an  emergency,  Nero  did  not  wait  for  the  permission 
of  the  senate  to  execute  his  project,  but  informed  them  that  he 
was  already  on  his  march  to  join  Livius  against  Hasdrubal.  He 
advised  them  to  send  the  two  legions  which  formed  the  home 
garrison  on  to  Narnia,  so  as  to  defend  that  pass  of  the  Flaminian 
road  against  Hasdrubal,  in  case  he  should  march  upon  Rome 
before  the  consular  armies  could  attack  him.  They  were  to  sup- 
ply the  place  of  these  two  legions  at  Rome  by  a  levy  en  masse 
in  the  city,  and  by  ordering  up  the  reserve  legion  from  Capua. 
These  were  his  communications  to  the  senate.     He  also  sent  horse- 


126  GREAT   BATTLES   OF   ALL   NATIONS 

men  forward  along  his  line  of  march,  with  orders  to  the  local 
authorities  to  bring  stores  of  provisions  and  refreshment  of  every 
kind  to  the  roadside,  and  to  have  relays  of  carriages  ready  for  the 
conveyance  of  the  wearied  soldiers.  Such  were  the  precautions 
which  he  took  for  accelerating  his  march;  and  when  he  had 
advanced  some  Httle  distance  from  his  camp,  he  briefly  informed 
his  soldiers  of  the  real  object  of  their  expedition.  He  told  them 
that  never  was  there  a  design  more  seeminglj'-  audacious  and  more 
really  safe.  He  said  he  was  leading  them  to  a  certain  victory, 
for  his  colleague  had  an  army  large  enough  to  balance  the  enemy 
already,  so  that  their  swords  would  decisivelj'-  turn  the  scale.  The 
very  rumor  that  a  fresh  consul  and  a  fresh  army  had  come  up, 
when  heard  on  the  battlefield  (and  he  would  take  care  that  they 
should  not  be  heard  of  before  they  were  seen  and  felt),  would  settle 
the  business.  They  would  have  all  the  credit  of  the  victory,  and 
of  having  dealt  the  final  decisive  blow.  He  appealed  to  the  enthu- 
siastic reception  which  they  already  met  with  on  their  hne  of  march 
as  a  proof  and  an  omen  of  their  good  fortune.  And,  indeed,  their 
whole  path  was  amid  the  vows,  and  prayers,  and  praises  of  their 
countrymen.  The  entire  population  of  the  districts  through  which 
they  passed  flocked  to  the  roadside  to  see  and  bless  the  dehverers 
of  their  country.  Food,  drink,  and  refreshments  of  every  kind 
were  eagerly  pressed  on  their  acceptance.  Each  peasant  thought 
a  favor  was  conferred  on  him  if  one  of  Nero's  chosen  band  would 
accept  aught  at  his  hands.  The  soldiers  caught  the  full  spirit  of 
their  leader.  Night  and  day  they  marched  forward,  taking  their 
huriied  meals  in  the  ranks,  and  resting  by  relays  in  the  wagons 
which  the  zeal  of  the  country  people  provided,  and  which  followed 
in  the  rear  of  the  column. 

Meanwhile,  at  Rome,  the  news  of  Nero's  expedition  had  caused 
the  greatest  excitement  and  alarm.  All  men  felt  the  fidl  audacity 
of  the  enterprise,  but  hesitated  what  epithet  to  apply  to  it.  It  was 
evident  that  Nero's  conduct  would  be  judged  of  by  the  event,  that 
most  unfair  criterion,  as  the  Roman  historian  truly  terms  it.  Peo- 
ple reasoned  on  the  perilous  state  in  which  Nero  had  left  the  rest 
of  his  army,  without  a  general,  and  deprived  of  the  core  of  its 
strength,  in  the  vicinity  of  the  terrible  Hannibal.     They  speculated 


THE    DEFEAT    OF    HANNIBAL  127 

on  how  long  it  would  take  Hannibal  to  pursue  and  overtake  Nero 
himself,  and  his  expeditionary  force.  They  talked  over  the  former 
disasters  of  the  war,  and  the  fall  of  both  the  consuls  of  the  last 
year.  All  these  calamities  had  come  on  them  while  they  had  only 
one  Carthaginian  general  and  army  to  deal  with  in  Italy,  Now 
they  had  two  Punic  wars  at  a  time.  They  had  two  Carthaginian 
armies,  they  had  almost  two  Hannibals  in  Italy,  Hasdrubal  was 
sprung  from  the  same  father ;  trained  up  in  the  same  hostihty  to 
Rome ;  equally  practiced  in  battle  against  their  legions ;  and,  if  the 
comparative  speed  and  success  with  which  he  had  crossed  the  Alps 
was  a  fair  test,  he  was  even  a  better  general  than  his  brother. 
With  fear  for  their  interpreter  of  everj'  rumor,  they  exaggerated 
the  strength  of  their  enemy's  forces  in  every  quarter,  and  criticised 
and  distrusted  their  own. 

Fortunately  for  Rome,  while  she  was  thus  a  prey  to  terror  and 
anxiety,  her  consul's  nerves  were  stout  and  strong,  and  he  resolutely 
urged  on  his  march  toward  Sena,  where  his  colleague  Livius  and 
the  praetor  Porcius  were  encamped,  Hasdrubal's  army  being  in 
position  about  half  a  mile  to  their  north,  Nero  had  sent  couriers 
forward  to  apprise  his  colleague  of  his  project  and  of  his  approach; 
and  by  the  advice  of  Livius,  Nero  so  timed  his  final  march  as 
to  reach  the  camp  at  Sena  by  night.  According  to  a  previous 
arrangement,  Nero's  men  were  received  silently  into  the  tents  of 
their  comrades,  each  according  to  his  rank.  By  these  means  there 
was  no  enlargement  of  the  camp  that  could  betritj^  to  Hasdrubal 
the  accession  of  force  which  the  Romans  had  received.  This  was 
considerable,  as  Nero's  numbers  had  been  increased  on  the  march 
by  the  volunteers,  who  offered  themselves  in  crowds,  and  from 
whom  he  selected  the  most  promising  men,  and  especially  the 
veterans  of  former  campaigns.  A  council  of  war  was  held  on 
the  morning  after  his  arrival,  in  which  some  advised  that  time 
should  be  given  for  Nero's  men  to  refresh  themselves  after  the 
fatigue  of  such  a  march.  But  Nero  vehemently  opposed  aU  delay. 
*'The  oflScer,"  said  he,  "who  is  for  giving  time  to  my  men  here  to 
rest  themselves  is  for  giving  time  to  Hannibal  to  attack  my  men, 
whom  I  have  left  in  the  camp  in  Apulia.  He  is  for  giving  time  to 
Hannibal  and  Hasdrubal  to  discover  my  march,  and  to  maneuver 


128  GREAT    BATTLES   OF    ALL   NATIONS 

for  a  junction  with  each  other  in  Cisalpine  Gaul  at  their  leisure. 
We  must  fight  instantly,  while  both  the  foe  here  and  the  foe  in 
the  south  are  ignorant  of  our  movements.  We  must  destroy  this 
Hasdrubal,  and  I  must  be  back  in  Apulia  before  Hannibal  awakes 
from  his  torpor."  Nero's  advice  prevailed.  It  was  resolved  to 
fight  directly,  and  before  the  consuls  and  praetor  left  the  tent  of 
Livius,  the  red  ensign,  which  was  the  signal  to  prepare  for  imme- 
diate action,  was  hoisted,  and  the  Romans  forthwith  drew  up  in 
battle  array  outside  the  camp. 

Hasdrubal  had  been  anxious  to  bring  Livius  and  Porcius  to 
battle,  though  he  had  not  judged  it  expedient  to  attack  them  in 
their  Hues.  And  now,  on  hearing  that  the  Romans  offered  battle, 
he  also  drew  up  his  men  and  advanced  toward  them.  No  spy  or 
deserter  had  informed  him  of  Nero's  arrival,  nor  had  he  received 
any  direct  information  that  he  had  more  than  his  old  enemies  to 
deal  with.  But  as  he  rode  forward  to  reconnoiter  the  Roman  line, 
he  thought  that  their  nimibers  seemed  to  have  increased,  and  that 
the  armor  of  some  of  them  was  unusually  dull  and  stained.  He 
noticed,  also,  that  the  horses  of  some  of  the  cavalry  appeared  to 
be  rough  and  out  of  condition,  as  if  they  had  just  come  from  a 
succession  of  forced  marches.  So  also,  though,  owing  to  the  pre- 
caution of  Livius,  the  Roman  camp  showed  no  change  of  size,  it 
had  not  escaped  the  quick  ear  of  the  Carthaginian  general  that 
the  trumpet  which  gave  the  signal  to  the  Roman  legions  sounded 
that  morning  once  oftener  than  usual,  as  if  directing  the  troops 
of  some  additional  superior  officer.  Hasdrubal,  from  his  Spanish 
campaigns,  was  well  acquainted  with  all  the  sounds  and  signals 
of  Roman  war,  and  from  all  that  he  heard  and  saw  he  felt  con- 
vinced that  both  the  Roman  consuls  were  before  him.  In  doubt 
and  difficulty  as  to  what  might  have  taken  place  between  the 
armies  of  the  south,  and  probably  hoping  that  Hannibal  also  was 
approaching,  Hasdrubal  determined  to  avoid  an  encounter  with 
the  combined  Roman  forces,  and  to  endeavor  to  retreat  upon 
Insubrian  Gaul,  where  he  would  be  in  a  friendly  country,  and 
could  endeavor  to  reopen  his  communication  with  his  brother. 
He  therefore  led  his  troops  back  into  their  camp;  and  as  the 
Romans  did  not  venture  on  an  assault  upon  his  iutrenchments, 


^^^•«s»^^\\\\,s\'«x>^,!^x\v«s\-^m.i!/imiii/iiii(;,i  'iiiiiiiiiiiiinmiiiiiiiiiiminmiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiimi 


THE  BATTLE  OF  CRESSY 

Battles,  Vdlume  One,  Chapter  Twelve 


THE    DEFEAT    OF    HANNIBAL  129 

and  Hasdrubal  did  not  choose  to  commence  his  retreat  in  their 
sight,  the  day  passed  away  in  inaction.  At  the  first  watch  of  the 
night,  Hasdrubal  led  his  men  silently  out  of  their  camp  and  moved 
northward  toward  the  Metaurus,  in  the  hope  of  placing  that  river 
between  himself  and  the  Romans  before  his  retreat  was  discovered. 
His  guides  betrayed  him;  and  having  purposely  led  him  away 
from  the  part  of  the  river  that  was  fordable,  they  made  their 
escape  in  the  dark,  and  left  Hasdrubal  and  his  army  wandering 
in  confusion  along  the  steep  bank,  and  seeking  in  vain  for  a  spot 
where  the  stream  could  be  safely  crossed.  At  last  they  halted ; 
and  when  day  dawned  on  them,  Hasdrubal  found  that  great  num- 
bers of  his  men,  in  their  fatigue  and  impatience,  had  lost  all  disci- 
pline and  subordination,  and  that  many  of  his  Gallic  auxiharies 
had  got  drunk,  and  were  lying  helpless  in  their  quarters.  The 
Roman  cavalry  was  soon  seen  coming  up  in  pursuit,  followed  at 
no  great  distance  by  the  legions,  which  marched  in  readiness  for 
an  instant  engagement.  It  was  hopeless  for  Hasdrubal  to  think 
of  continuing  his  retreat  before  them.  The  prospect  of  immediate 
battle  might  recall  the  disordered  part  of  his  troops  to  a  sense  of 
duty,  and  revive  the  instinct  of  discipline.  He  therefore  ordered 
his  men  to  prepare  for  action  instantly,  and  made  the  best  arrange- 
ment of  them  that  the  nature  of  the  ground  would  permit. 

Heeren  has  well  described  the  general  appearance  of  a  Car- 
thaginian army.  He  says,  "It  was  an  assemblage  of  the  most 
opposite  races  of  the  human  species  from  the  furthest  parts  of  the 
globe.  Hordes  of  half -naked  Gauls  were  ranged  next  to  companies 
of  white-clothed  Iberians,  and  savage  Ligurians  next  to  the  far- 
traveled  Nasamones  and  Lotophagi.  Carthaginians  and  Phoenici- 
Africans  formed  the  center,  while  innumerable  troops  of  Numidian 
horsemen,  taken  from  all  the  tribes  of  the  Desert,  swarmed  about 
on  unsaddled  horses,  and  formed  the  wings ;  the  van  was  composed 
of  Belearic  slingers;  and  a  line  of  colossal  elephants,  with  their 
Ethiopian  guides,  formed,  as  it  were,  a  chain  of  moving  fortresses 
before  the  whole  army."  Such  were  the  usual  materials  and 
arrangements  of  the  hosts  that  fought  for  Carthage;  but  the 
troops  under  Hasdrubal  were  not  in  all  respects  thus  constituted 

or  thus  stationed.     He  seems  to  have  been  especially  deficient  in 
E— Vol.  I. 


I50  GREAT   BATTLES    OF    ALL   NATIONS 

cavalry,  and  he  had  few  African  troops,  though  some  Cartha- 
ginians of  high  rank  were  with  him.  His  veteran  Spanish  in- 
fantry, armed  wdth  helmets  and  shields,  and  short  cut-and-thrust 
swords,  were  the  best  part  of  his  army.  These,  and  his  few  Afri- 
cans, he  drew  up  on  his  right  wing,  under  his  own  personal  com- 
mand. In  the  center  he  placed  his  Ligurian  infantry,  and  on  the 
left  wing  he  placed  or  retained  the  Gauls,  who  were  armed  with 
long  javehns  and  with  huge  broadswords  and  targets.  The  rugged 
nature  of  the  ground  in  front  and  on  the  flank  of  this  part  of  his 
line  made  him  hope  that  the  Roman  right  wing  would  be  unable 
to  come  to  close  quarters  with  these  unserviceable  barbarians  be- 
fore he  could  make  some  impression  with  his  Spanish  veterans  on 
the  Roman  left.  This  was  the  only  chance  that  he  had  of  victory 
or  safety,  and  he  seems  to  have  done  everything  that  good  general- 
ship could  do  to  secure  it.  He  placed  his  elephants  in  advance  of 
his  center  and  right  wing.  He  had  caused  the  driver  of  each 
of  them  to  be  provided  with  a  sharp  iron  spike  and  a  mallet,  and 
had  given  orders  that  every  beast  that  became  unmanageable,  and 
ran  back  upon  his  own  ranks,  should  be  instantly  killed,  by  driving 
the  .spike  into  the  vertebra  at  the  junction  of  the  head  and  the 
spine.  Hasdrubal's  elephants  were  ten  in  number.  We  have  no 
trustworthy  information  as  to  the  amount  of  his  infantry,  but  it 
is  quite  clear  that  he  was  greatly  outnumbered  by  the  combined 
Roman   forces. 

The  tactics  of  the  Roman  legions  had  not  yet  acquired  that 
perfection  which  it  received  from  the  military  genius  of  Marius, 
and  which  we  read  of  in  the  first  chapter  of  Gibbon.  We  possess, 
in  that  great  work,  an  account  of  the  Roman  legions  at  the  end  of 
the  commonwealth,  and  during  the  early  ages  of  the  empire,  which 
those  alone  can  adequately  admire  who  have  attempted  a  similar 
description.  We  have  also,  in  the  sixth  and  seventeenth  books  of 
Polybius,  an  elaborate  discussion  on  the  military  system  of  the 
Romans  in  his  time,  which  was  not  far  distant  from  the  time  of 
the  battle  of  the  Metaurus.  But  the  subject  is  beset  with  diffi- 
culties; and  instead  of  entering  into  minute  but  inconclusive  de- 
tails, I  would  refer  to  Gibbon's  first  chapter  as  serving  for  a  general 
description  of  the  Roman  army  in  its  period  of  perfection,  and  re- 


THE    DEFEAT    OF    HANNIBAL  131 

mark  that  the  training  and  araior  which  the  whole  legion  received 
in  the  time  of  Augustus  was,  two  centuries  earher,  only  partially 
introduced.  Two  divisions  of  troops,  called  Hastati  and  Principes, 
formed  the  bulk  of  each  Roman  legion  in  the  second  Punic  war. 
Each  of  these  divisions  was  twelve  hundred  strong.  The  Hastatus 
and  the  Princeps  legionary  bore  a  breast-plate  or  coat  of  mail, 
brazen  greaves,  and  a  brazen  helmet,  with  a  lofty  upright  crest 
of  scarlet  or  black  feathers.  He  had  a  large  oblong  shield ;  and, 
as  weapons  of  offense,  two  javelins,  one  of  which  was  light  and 
slender,  but  the  other  was  a  strong  and  massive  weapon,  with  a 
shaft  about  four  feet  long  and  an  iron  head  of  equal  length.  The 
sword  was  carried  on  the  right  thigh,  and  was  a  short  cut-and- 
thrust  weapon  like  that  which  was  used  by  the  Spaniards.  Thus 
armed,  the  Hastati  formed  the  front  division  of  the  legion  and  the 
Principes  the  second.  Each  division  was  drawn  up  about  ten 
deep,  a  space  of  three  feet  being  allowed  between  the  files  as  well 
as  the  ranks,  so  as  to  give  each  legionary  ample  room  for  the  use 
of  his  javelins,  and  of  his  sword  and  sliield.  The  men  in  the  second 
rank  did  not  stand  immediately  behind  those  in  the  first  rank,  but 
the  files  were  alternate,  like  the  position  of  the  men  on  a  draught- 
board. This  was  termed  the  quincunx  order.  Niebuhr  considers 
that  this  arrangement  enabled  the  legion  to  keep  up  a  shower  of 
javehns  on  the  enemy  for  some  considerable  time.  He  says, 
"When  the  first  line  had  hurled  its  pila,  it  probably  stepped  back 
between  those  who  stood  behind  it,  and  two  steps  forward  restored 
the  front  nearly  to  its  first  position ;  a  movement  which,  on  account 
of  the  arrangement  of  the  quincunx,  could  be  executed  without 
losing  a  moment.  Thus  one  line  succeeded  the  other  in  the  front 
till  it  was  time  to  draw  the  swords ;  naj^  when  it  was  found  expe- 
dient, the  lines  which  had  already  been  in  the  front  might  repeat 
this  change,  since  the  stores  of  pila  were  surely  not  confined  to  the 
two  which  each  soldier  took  with  him  into  battle. 

"The  same  change  must  have  taken  place  in  fighting  with  the 
sword,  which,  when  the  same  tactic  was  adopted  on  both  sides,  was 
anything  but  a  confused  melee;  on  the  contrarj^  it  was  a  series  of 
single  combats. ' '  He  adds,  that  a  military  man  of  experience  had 
been  consulted  by  him  on  the  subject,  and  had  given  it  as  his  opinion 


132  GREAT    BATTLES    OF    ALL    NATIONS 

"that  the  change  of  the  lines  as  described  above  was  by  no  means 
impracticable;  but,  in  the  absence  of  the  deafening  noise  of  gun- 
powder, it  cannot  have  had  even  anj^  difficulty  Avith  well-trained 
troops." 

The  third  division  of  the  legion  was  six  hundred  strong  and 
acted  as  a  reserve.  It  was  always  composed  of  veteran  soldiers, 
who  were  called  the  Triarii.  Their  arms  were  the  same  as  those 
of  the  Principes  and  Hastati,  except  that  each  Triarian  carried  a 
spear  instead  of  javelins.  The  rest  of  the  legion  consisted  of  light- 
armed  troops,  who  acted  as  skirmishers.  The  cavalry  of  each 
legion  was  at  this  period  about  three  hundred  strong.  The  Italian 
allies,  who  were  attached  to  the  legion,  seem  to  have  been  similarly 
armed  and  equipped,  but  their  numerical  proportion  of  cavalry  was 
much  larger. 

Such  was  the  nature  of  the  forces  that  advanced  on  the  Roman 
side  to  the  battle  of  the  Metaurus.  ]^ero  commanded  the  right 
wing,  Livius  the  left,  and  the  praetor  Porcius  had  the  command  of 
the  center.  "Both  Romans  and  Carthaginians  well  understood  how 
much  depended  upon  the  fortune  of  this  day,  and  how  little  hope  of 
safety  there  was  for  the  vanquished.  Only  the  Romans  herein 
seemed  to  have  had  the  better  in  conceit  and  opinion  that  they  were 
to  fight  with  men  desirous  to  have  fled  from  them ;  and  according 
to  this  presumption  came  Livius  the  consul,  with  a  proud  bravery, 
to  give  charge  on  the  Spaniards  and  Africans,  by  whom  he  was  so 
sharply  entertained  that  the  victory  seemed  very  doubtful.  The 
Africans  and  Spaniards  were  stout  soldiers,  and  well  acquainted 
with  the  manner  of  the  Roman  fight.  The  Ligurians,  also,  were 
a  hardy  nation,  and  not  accustomed  to  give  ground,  which  they 
needed  the  less,  or  were  able  now  to  do,  being  placed  in  the  midst. 
Livius,  therefore,  and  Porcius  found  great  opposition;  and  with 
great  slaughter  on  both  sides  prevailed  little  or  nothing.  Besides 
other  difficulties,  they  were  exceedingly  troubled  by  the  elephants, 
that  brake  their  first  ranks,  and  put  them  in  such  disorder  as  the 
Roman  ensigns  were  driven  to  fall  back;  all  this  while  Claudius 
Nero,  laboring  in  vain  against  a  steep  hill,  was  unable  to  come  to 
blows  with,  the  Gauls  that  stood  opposite  him,  but  out  of  danger. 
This  made  Hasdrubal  the  more  confident,  who,  seeing  his  own  left 


THE    DEFEAT    OF    HANNIBAL  133 

wing  safe,  did  the  more  boldly  and  fiercely  make  impression  on  the 
other  side  upon  the  left  wing  of  the  Romans. ' ' 

But  at  last  Nero,  who  found  that  Hasdrubal  refused  his  left 
wing,  and  who  could  not  overcome  the  difficulties  of  the  ground  in 
the  quarter  assigned  to  him,  decided  the  battle  by  another  stroke  of 
that  military  genius  which  had  inspired  his  march.  Wheeling  a 
brigade  of  his  best  men  round  the  rear  of  the  rest  of  the  Roman 
army,  Nero  fiercelj"  charged  the  flank  of  the  Spaniards  and  Afri- 
cans. The  charge  was  as  successful  as  it  was  sudden.  Rolled 
back  in  disorder  upon  each  other,  and  overwhelmed  by  numbers, 
the  Spaniards  and  Ligurians  died,  fighting  gallantly  to  the  last. 
The  Gauls,  who  had  taken  little  or  no  part  in  the  strife  of  the  day, 
were  then  surrounded,  and  butchered  almost  without  resistance. 
Hasdrubal,  after  having,  b}''  the  confession  of  his  enemies,  done  all 
that  a  general  could  do,  when  he  saw  that  the  victory  was  irrepa- 
rably lost,  scorning  to  survive  the  gallant  host  which  he  had  led, 
and  to  gratify,  as  a  caj)tive,  Roman  cruelty  and  pride,  spurred  his 
horse  into  the  midst  of  a  Roman  cohort,  and,  sword  in  hand,  met 
the  death  that  was  worthy  of  the  son  of  Hamilcar  and  the  brother 
of  Hannibal. 

Success  the  most  complete  had  crowned  Nero's  enterprise. 
Returning  as  rapidly  as  he  had  advanced,  he  was  again  facing 
the  inactive  enemies  in  the  south  before  they  even  knew  of  his 
march.  But  he  brought  with  him  a  ghastly  trophy  of  what  he 
had  done.  In  the  true  spirit  of  that  savage  brutality  which  de- 
formed the  Roman  national  character,  Nero  ordered  Hasdrubal's 
head  to  be  flung  into  his  brother's  camp.  Ten  years  had  passed 
since  Hannibal  had  last  gazed  on  those  features.  The  sons  of 
Hamilcar  had  then  planned  their  system  of  warfare  against  Rome 
which  they  had  so  nearly  brought  to  successful  accomplishment. 
Year  after  year  had  Hannibal  been  struggling  in  Ital}-,  in  the  hope 
of  one  day  hailing  the  arrival  of  him  whom  he  had  left  in  Spain, 
and  of  seeing  his  brother's  ej'^e  flash  with  affection  and  pride  at  the 
junction  of  their  irresistible  hosts.  He  now  saw  that  eye  glazed  in 
death,  and  in  the  agony  of  his  heart  the  great  Carthaginian  groaned 
aloud  that  he  recognized  his  country's  destiny. 

Meanwhile,  at  the  tidings  of  the  great  battle,  Rome  at  once  rose 


134  GREAT    BATTLES    OF  ALL    NATIONS 

from  the  thrill  of  anxiety  and  terror  to  the  full  confidence  of  triumph. 
Hannibal  might  retain  his  hold  on  Southern  Italy  for  a  few  years 
longer,  but  the  imperial  city  and  her  allies  were  no  longer  in  danger 
from  his  arms ;  and,  after  Hannibal's  downfall,  the  great  military 
republic  of  the  ancient  world  met  in  her  career  of  conquest  no  other 
worthy  competitor.  Byron  has  termed  Nero's  march  "unequaled," 
and,  in  the  magnitude  of  its  consequences,  it  is  so.  Viewed  only  as 
a  mihtary  exploit,  it  remains  unparalleled  save  by  Marlborough's 
bold  march  from  Flanders  to  the  Danube  in  the  campaign  of  Blen- 
heim, and  perhaps  also  by  the  Archduke  Charles's  lateral  march  in 
1796,  by  which  he  overwhelmed  the  French  under  Jourdan,  and 
then,  driving  Moreau  through  the  Black  Forest  and  across  the 
Rhine    for  a  while  freed  Germany  from  her  invaders. 


CHAPTER    VI 

THE  VICTORY  OF  ARMINIUS  OVER  THE  ROMAN 

LEGIONS 

THE  DEFEAT  OF  VARUS  — THE  INDEPENDENCE  OF  THE 
TEUTONIC  RACE  SECURED 

A.  D.  9 

IN  the  first  years  of  the  present  era  the  resources  of  Rome  were 
boundless;  her  might  was  regarded  as  invincible,  her  sway 
was  immense.  Among  those  aware  of  her  gigantic  power  was 
a  German  chieftain.  His  name  was  Arminius.  At  the  time  half 
of  his  country  was  occupied  by  Roman  garrisons.  He,  however, 
was  familiar  with  the  Roman  language  and  civilization ;  he  had 
served  in  the  Roman  armies;  he  had  been  admitted  to  the  Roman 
citizenship,  and  raised  to  the  rank  of  the  equestrian  order.  It  was 
part  of  the  subtle  policy  of  Rome  to  confer  rank  and  privileges  on 
the  youth  of  the  leading  families  in  the  nations  which  she  wished 
to  enslave.     Among  other  young  German  chieftains,  Arminius  and 


THE   VICTORY   OF   ARMINIUS  135 

his  brother,  who  were  the  heads  of  the  noblest  house  in  the  tribe 
of  the  Cherusci,  had  been  selected  as  fit  objects  for  the  exercise  of 
this  insidious  system.  Roman  refinements  and  dignities  succeeded 
in  denationalizing  the  brother,  who  assumed  the  Roman  name  of 
Flavins,  and  adhered  to  Rome  throughout  all  her  wars  against 
his  country.  Arminius  remained  unbought  by  honorc  or  wealth, 
uncorrupted  by  refinement  or  luxury.  He  aspired  to  and  obtained 
from  Roman  enmity  a  higher  title  than  ever  could  have  been  given 
him  by  Roman  favor.  It  is  in  the  page  of  Rome's  greatest  histo- 
rian that  his  name  has  come  down  to  us  with  the  proud  addition 
of  "Liberator  baud  dubie  Germanise." 

Often  must  the  young  chieftain,  while  meditating  the  exploit 
which  has  thus  immortalized  him,  have  anxiously  revolved  in  his 
mind  the  fate  of  the  many  great  men  who  had  been  crushed  in 
the  attempt  which  he  was  about  to  renew — the  attempt  to  stay 
the  chariot-wheels  of  triimiphant  Rome.  Could  he  hope  to  succeed 
where  Hannibal  and  Mithradates  had  perished?  What  had  been 
the  doom  of  Viriathus?  and  what  warning  against  vain  valor  was 
written  on  the  desolate  site  where  Numantia  once  had  flourished? 
Nor  was  a  caution  wanting  in  scenes  nearer  home  and  more  recent 
times.  The  Gauls  had  fruitlessly  struggled  for  eight  years  against 
Caesar ;  and  the  gallant  Vercingetorix,  who  in  the  last  year  of  the 
war  had  roused  all  his  countrymen  to  insurrection,  who  had  cut 
off  Roman  detachments,  and  brought  Ceesar  himself  to  the  extreme 
of  peril  at  Alesia — he,  too,  had  finally  succumbed,  had  been  led 
captive  in  Caesar's  triumph,  and  had  then  been  butchered  in  cold 
blood  in  a  Roman  dungeon. 

It  was  true  that  Rome  was  no  longer  the  great  military  republic 
which  for  so  many  ages  had  shattered  the  kingdoms  of  the  world. 
Her  system  of  government  was  changed;  and,  after  a  century  of 
revolution  and  civil  war,  she  had  placed  herself  under  the  despot- 
ism of  a  single  ruler.  But  the  discipline  of  her  troops  was  yet 
unimpaired,  and  her  warlike  spirit  seemed  unabated.  The  first 
year  of  the  empire  had  been  signalized  by  conquests  as  valuable 
as  any  gained  by  the  repubhc  in  a  corresponding  period.  It  is  a 
great  fallacy,  though  apparently  sanctioned  by  great  authorities, 
to  suppose  that  the  foreign  policy  pursued  by  Augustus  was  pacific ; 


136  GREAT    BATTLE-S    OF  ALL   NATIONS 

he  certainly  recommended  such  a  poHcy  to  his  successors  {incertum 
metu  an  per  invidiatii,  Tac,  Ann.,  i.  11),  but  he  himself,  until 
Arniinius  broke  his  spirit,  had  followed  a  very  different  course. 
Besides  his  Spanish  wars,  his  generals,  in  a  series  of  generally 
aggressive  campaigns,  had  extended  the  Roman  frontier  from  the 
Alps  to  the  Danube,  and  had  reduced  into  subjection  the  large  and 
important  countries  that  now  form  the  territories  of  all  Austria 
south  of  that  river,  and  of  East  Switzerland,  Lower  Wirtemberg, 
Bavaria,  the  Valtelline  and  the  Tyrol.  "While  the  progress  of  the 
Roman  arms  thus  pressed  the  Germans  from  the  south,  still  more 
formidable  inroads  had  been  made  by  the  imperial  legions  on  the 
west.  Roman  armies,  moving  from  the  province  of  Gaul,  estab- 
lished a  chain  of  fortresses  along  the  right  as  well  as  the  left  bank 
of  the  Rhine,  and,  in  a  series  of  victorious  campaigns,  advanced 
their  eagles  as  far  as  the  Elbe,  which  now  seemed  added  to  the  list 
of  vassal  rivers,  to  the  Nile,  the  Rhine,  the  Rhone,  the  Danube, 
tiie  Tagus,  the  Seine,  and  many  more,  that  acknowledged  the 
supremacy  of  the  Tiber.  Roman  fleets  also,  sailing  from  the  har- 
bors of  Gaul  along  the  German  coasts  and  up  the  estuaries,  co- 
operated with  the  land  forces  of  the  empire,  and  seemed  to  displaj-^, 
even  more  decisively  than  her  armies,  her  overwhelming  superiority 
over  the  rude  Germanic  tribes.  Throughout  the  territory  thus  in- 
vaded, the  Romans  had,  with  their  usual  military  skill,  established 
fortified  posts ;  and  a  powerful  army  of  occupation  was  kept  on 
foot,  ready  to  move  instantly  on  any  spot  where  any  popular  out- 
break might  be  attempted. 

Vast,  however,  and  admirably  organized  as  the  fabric  of  Roman 
power  appeared  on  the  frontiers  and  in  the  provinces,  there  was 
rottenness  at  the  core.  In  Rome's  unceasing  hostilities  with  for- 
eign foes,  and  still  more  in  her  long  series  of  desolating  civil  wars, 
the  free  middle  classes  of  Italy  had  almost  wholly  disappeared. 
Above  the  position  which  they  had  occupied,  an  oligarchy  of  wealth 
had  reared  itself ;  beneath  that  position,  a  degraded  mass  of  poverty 
and  misery  was  fermenting.  Slaves,  the  chance  sweepings  of  every 
conquered  country,  shoals  of  Africans,  Sardinians,  Asiatics,  Illy- 
rians,  and  others,  made  up  the  bulk  of  the  population  of  the  Italian 
peninsula.     The  foulest  profligacy  of  manners  was  general  in  all 


THE   VICTORY   OF   ARMINIUS  137 

ranks.  In  universal  weariness  of  revolution  and  civil  war,  and  in 
consciousness  of  being  too  debased  for  self-government,  the  nation 
had  submitted  itself  to  the  absolute  authority  of  Augustus.  Adula- 
tion was  now  the  chief  function  of  the  senate ;  and  the  gifts  of 
genius  and  accomplishments  of  art  were  devoted  to  the  elaboration 
of  eloquently  false  panegyrics  upon  the  prince  and  his  favorite 
courtiers.  With  bitter  indignation  must  the  German  chieftain  have 
beheld  all  this  and  contrasted  with  it  the  rough  worth  of  his  own 
countrymen :  their  bravery,  their  fidelity  to  their  word,  their  manly 
independence  of  spirit,  their  love  of  their  national  free  institutions, 
and  their  loathing  of  every  pollution  and  meanness.  Above  all,  he 
must  have  thought  of  the  domestic  virtues  that  hallowed  a  German 
home ;  of  the  respect  there  shown  to  the  female  character,  and  of 
the  pure  affection  by  which  that  respect  was  repaid.  His  soul  must 
have  burned  within  him  at  the  contemplation  of  such  a  race  yield- 
ing to  these  debased  Italians. 

Still,  to  persuade  the  Germans  to  combine,  in  spite  of  their  fre- 
quent feuds  among  themselves,  in  one  sudden  outbreak  against 
Rome;  to  keep  the  scheme  concealed  from  the  Romans  until  the 
hour  for  action  arrived;  and  then,  without  possessing  a  single 
walled  town,  without  military  stores,  without  training,  to  teach 
his  insurgent  countrymen  to  defeat  veteran  armies  and  storm  forti- 
fications, seemed  so  perilous  an  enterprise  that  probably  Arminius 
would  have  receded  from  it  had  not  a  stronger  feeling  even  than 
patriotism  urged  him  on.  Among  the  Germans  of  high  rank  who 
had  most  readily  submitted  to  the  invaders,  and  become  zealous 
partisans  of  Roman  authority,  was  a  chieftain  named  Segestes. 
His  daughter,  Thusnelda,  was  pre-eminent  among  the  noble  maid- 
ens of  German}'.  Arminius  had  sought  her  hand  in  marriage;  but 
Segestes,  who  probably  discerned  the  young  chief's  disaffection  to 
Rome,  forbade  his  suit,  and  strove  to  preclude  all  communication 
between  him  and  his  daughter.  Thusnelda,  however,  sympathized 
far  more  with  the  heroic  spirit  of  her  lover  than  with  the  time- 
serving policy  of  her  father.  An  elopement  baffled  the  precautions 
of  Segestes,  who,  disappointed  in  his  hope  of  preventing  the  mar- 
riage, accused  Arminius  l)ef()ro  the  Roman  governed'  of  having 
carried  off   Lie  daughter,  aud  of   plunuiug    troaeou    aguinst  Rome. 


138  GREAT   BATTLES   OF   ALL   NATIONS 

Thus  assailed,  and  dreading  to  see  his  bride  torn  from  him  by  the 
officials  of  the  foreign  oppressor,  Arm.inius  delayed  no  longer,  but 
bent  all  Ms  energies  to  organize  and  execute  a  general  insurrection 
of  the  great  mass  of  his  countrymen,  who  hitherto  had  submitted 
in  sullen  hatred  to  the  Roman  dominion. 

A  change  of  governors  had  recently  taken  place,  which,  while 
it  materiallj'  favored  the  ultimate  success  of  the  insurgents,  served, 
by  the  immediate  aggravation  of  the  Roman  oppressions  which  it 
produced,  to  "make  the  native  population  more  universally  eager 
to  take  arms.  Tiberius,  who  was  afterward  emperor,  had  recently 
been  recalled  from  the  command  in  Germany,  and  sent  into  Pan- 
nonia  to  put  down  a  dangerous  revolt  which  had  broken  out  against 
the  Romans  in  that  province.  The  German  patriots  were  thus  de- 
livered from  the  stern  supervision  of  one  of  the  most  suspicious  of 
mankind,  and  were  also  reHeved  from  having  to  contend  against 
the  high  military  talents  of  a  veteran  commander,  who  thoroughly' 
understood  their  national  character,  and  also  the  nature  of  the 
country,  which  he  himself  had  principally  subdued.  In  the  room 
of  Tiberius,  Augustus  sent  into  Germany  Quintilius  Varus,  who 
had  lately  returned  from  the  proconsulate  of  Syria.  Varus  was 
a  true  representative  of  the  higher  classes  of  the  Romans,  among 
whom  a  general  taste  for  Uterature,  a  keen  susceptibility  to  all 
intellectual  gratifications,  a  minute  acquaintance  with  the  prin- 
ciples and  practice  of  their  own  national  jurisprudence,  a  careful 
training  in  the  schools  of  the  rhetoricians,  and  a  fondness  for  either 
partaking  in  or  watching  the  intellectual  strife  of  forensic  oratorj-, 
had  become  generally  diffused,  without,  however,  having  human- 
ized the  old  Roman  spirit  of  cruel  indifference  for  human  feelings 
and  human  sufferings,  and  without  acting  as  the  least  checks  on 
unprincipled  avarice  and  ambition,  or  on  habitual  and  gross  prof- 
ligacy. Accustomed  to  govern  the  depraved  and  debased  natives 
of  Syria,  a  countrj'  where  courage  in  man  and  virtue  in  woman 
had  for  centuries  been  unknown,  Varus  thought  that  he  might 
gratify  his  licentious  and  rapacious  passions  with  equal  impunity 
among  the  high-minded  sons  and  pure-spirited  daughters  of  Ger- 
many. "When  the  general  of  an  army  sets  the  example  of  outrages 
of  this  description,  he  is  soon  faithfully  imitated  by  his  officers,  and 


THE    VICTORY   OF    ARMINIUS  139 

surpassed  by  his  still  more  brutal  soldiery.  The  Romans  now 
habitually  indulged  in  those  violations  of  the  sanctity  of  the  do- 
mestic shrine,  and  those  insults  upon  honor  and  modesty,  by  which 
far  less  gallant  spirits  than  those  of  our  Teutonic  ancestors  have 
often  been  maddened  into  insurrection. 

Arminius  found   among  the  other  German  chiefs  many  who 
sympathized  with  him  in  his  indignation  at  their  country's  abase- 
ment, and  many  whom  private  wrongs  had  stung  yet  more  deeply. 
There  was  little  difficulty  in  collecting  bold  leaders  for  an  attack  on 
the  oppressors,  and  little  fear  of  the  population  not  rising  readily 
at  those  leaders'  call.     But  to  declare  open  war  against  Rome,  and 
to  encounter  Varus's  army  in  a  pitched  battle,  would  have  been 
merely  rushing  upon  certain  destruction.     Varus  had  three  legions 
under  him,  a  force  which,  after  allowing  for  detachments,  cannot 
be  estimated  at  less  than  fourteen  thousand  Roman  infantry.     He 
had  also  eight  or  nine  hundred  Roman  cavalry,  and  at  least  an 
equal  number  of  horse  and  foot  sent  from  the  aUied  states,  or  raised 
among  those  provincials  who  had  not  received  the  Roman  franchise. 
It  was  not  merely  the  number  but  the  quality  of  this  force  that 
made  them  formidable;   and,  however  contemptible  Varus  might 
be  as  a  general,  Arminius  well   knew  how  admirably  the  Roman 
armies  were  organized  and  officered,  and  how  perfectly  the  legion- 
aries understood  every  maneuver  and  every  duty  which  the  vary- 
ing emergencies  of  a  stricken  field  might  require.     Stratagem  was, 
therefore,  indispensable;   and  it  w^s  necessarj^  to  blind  Varus  to 
their  schemes  until  a  favorable  opportunity  should  arrive  for  strik- 
ing a  decisive  blow. 

For  this  purpose,  the  German  confederates  frequented  the  head- 
quarters of  Varus,  which  seem  to  have  been  near  the  center  of  the 
modern  country  of  WestphaUa,  where  the  Roman  general  conducted 
himself  with  all  the  arrogant  security  of  the  governor  of  a  perfectly 
submissive  pro\nnce.  There  Varus  gratified  at  once  his  vanity,  his 
rhetorical  tastes,  and  his  avarice,  by  holding  courts,  to  which  he 
summoned  the  Germans  for  the  settlement  of  all  their  disputes, 
while  a  bar  of  Roman  advocates  attended  to  argue  the  cases  before 
the  tribunal  of  Varus,  who  did  not  omit  the  opportunity  of  exactmg 
court-fees  and  accepting  bribes.     Varus  trusted  implicitly  to  the 


I40  GREAT    BATTLES    OF    ALL    NATIONS 

respect  which  the  Germans  pretended  to  pay  to  his  abihties  as  a 
judge,  and  to  the  interest  which  they  affected  to  take  in  the  forensic 
eloquence  of  their  conquerors.  Meanwhile,  a  succession  of  heavy 
rains  rendered  the  country  more  difficult  for  the  operations  of  regu- 
lar troops,  and  Arminius,  seeing  that  the  infatuation  of  Varus  was 
complete,  secretly  directed  the  tribes  near  the  Weser  and  the  Ems 
to  take  up  arms  in  open  revolt  against  the  Romans.  This  was 
represented  to  Varus  as  an  occasion  which  required  his  prompt 
attendance  at  the  spot ;  but  he  was  kept  in  studied  ignorance  of 
its  being  part  of  a  concerted  national  rising ;  and  he  still  looked 
on  Arminius  as  his  submissive  vassal,  whose  aid  he  might  rely  on 
in  facilitating  the  march  of  his  troops  against  the  rebels,  and  in 
extinguishing  the  local  disturbance.  He  therefore  set  his  army 
in  motion,  and  marched  eastward  in  a  Une  parallel  to  the  course  of 
the  Lippe.  For  some  distance  his  route  lay  along  a  level  plain ;  but 
on  arriving  at  the  tract  between  the  curve  of  the  upper  part  of  that 
stream  and  the  sources  of  the  Ems,  the  country  assumes  a  very 
different  character;  and  here,  in  the  territory  of  the  modern  little 
principality  of  Lippe,  it  was  that  Arminius  had  fixed  the  scene  of 
his  enterprise. 

A  woody  and  hilly  region  intervenes  between  the  heads  of  tlie 
two  rivers,  and  forms  the  watershed  of  their  streams.  This  region 
still  retains  the  name  (Teutobergenwald  =  Teutobergiensis  saltus) 
which  it  bore  in  the  days  of  Arminius.  The  nature  of  the  ground 
has  probably  also  remained  omaltered.  The  eastern  part  of  it, 
round  Detmold,  the  modern  capital  of  the  principalitj'  of  Lippe, 
is  described  by  a  modern  German  scholar,  Dr.  Plate,  as  being  a 
"tableland  intersected  by  numerous  deep  and  narrow  valleys, 
which  in  some  places  form  small  plains,  surrounded  by  steep 
mountains  and  rocks,  and  only  accessible  by  narrow  defiles.  All 
the  valleys  are  traversed  by  rapid  streams,  shallow  in  the  dry 
season,  but  subject  to  sudden  swellings  in  autumn  and  winter. 
The  vast  forests  which  cover  the  summits  and  slopes  of  the  hills 
consist  chiefly  of  oak ;  there  is  little  underwood,  and  both  men  and 
horse  would  move  with  ease  in  the  forests  if  the  ground  were  not 
broken  by  gullies,  or  rendered  impracticable  by  fallen  trees."  This 
is  the  district  to  which  Varus  is  supposed  to  have  marched;  and 


THH    VICTORY    OF    ARMINIUS  141 

Dr.  Plate  adds,  that  "the  names  of  several  localities  on  and  near 
that  spot  seem  to  indicate  that  a  great  battle  has  once  been  fought 
there.  We  find  the  names  'das  Winnefeld'  (the  field  of  victory), 
'die  Knochenbahn'  (the  bone-lane),  'die  Knochenleke'  (the  bone- 
brook),    'der    Mordkessel'  (the  kettle  of  slaughter),  and   others." 

Contrary  to  the  usual  strict  principles  of  Roman  discipline. 
Varus  had  suffered  his  army  to  be  accompanied  and  impeded  by 
an  immense  train  of  baggage-wagons  and  by  a  rabble  of  camp 
followers,  as  if  his  troops  had  been  merely  changing  their  quarters 
in  a  friendly  country.  When  the  long  array  quitted  the  firm,  level 
ground,  and  began  to  wind  its  way  among  the  woods,  the  marshes, 
and  the  ravines,  the  difficulties  of  the  march,  even  without  the 
intervention  of  an  armed  foe,  became  fearfully  apparent.  In  many 
places  the  mil,  sodden  with  rain,  was  impracticable  for  cavalry, 
and  even  for  infantry,  until  trees  had  been  felled  and  a  rude  cause- 
way formed  through  the  morass. 

The  duties  of  the  engineer  were  familiar  to  all  who  served  in 
the  Roman  armies.  But  the  crowd  and  confusion  of  the  columns 
embarrassed  the  working  parties  of  the  soldiery,  and  in  the  midst 
of  their  toil  and  disorder  the  word  was  suddenly  passed  through 
their  ranks  that  the  rearguard  was  attacked  by  the  barbarians. 
Varus  resolved  on  pressing  forward;  but  a  heavy  discharge  of 
missiles  from  the  woods  on  either  fiank  taught  him  how  serious 
was  the  peril,  and  he  saw  his  best  men  falling  round  him  without 
the  opportunity  of  retaliation ;  for  his  light-armed  auxiliaries,  who 
were  principally  of  Germanic  race,  now  rapidly  deserted,  and  it 
was  impossible  to  deploy  the  legionaries  on  such  broken  ground  for 
a  charge  against  the  enemj'.  Choosing  one  of  the  most  open  and 
firm  spots  which  they  could  force  their  way  to,  the  Romans  halted 
for  the  night;  and,  faithful  to  their  national  discipline  and  tactics, 
formed  their  camp,  amid  the  harassing  attacks  of  the  rapidly  throng- 
ing foes,  with  the  elaborate  toil  and  systematic  skill,  the  traces  of 
which  are  impressed  permanently  on  the  soil  of  so  many  European 
countries,  attesting  the  presence  in  the  olden  time  of  the  imperial 
eagles. 

On  the  morrow  the  Romans  renewed  their  march,  the  veteran 
oflScers  who  served  under  Varus  now  probably  directing  the  opera- 


142  GREAT   BATTLES    OF   ALL    NATIONS 

tions,  and  hoping  to  find  the  Germans  drawn  up  to  meet  them,  in 
which  case  they  rehed  on  their  own  superior  disciphne  and  tactics 
for  such  a  victory  as  should  reassure  the  supremacy  of  Rome.  But 
Arminius  was  far  too  sage  a  commander  to  lead  on  his  followers, 
with  their  unwieldy  broadswords  and  inefficient  defensive  armor, 
against  the  Roman  legionaries,  fully  armed  with  helmet,  cuirass, 
greaves,  and  shield,  who  were  skilled  to  commence  the  conflict 
with  a  murderous  volley  of  heavy  javelins,  hurled  upon  the  foe 
when  a  few  yards  distant,  and  then,  with  their  short  cut-and- thrust 
swords,  to  hew  their  way  through  all  opposition,  preserving  the 
utmost  steadiness  and  coolness,  and  obeying  each  word  of  com- 
mand in  the  midst  of  strife  and  slaughter  with  the  same  precision 
and  alertness  as  if  upon  parade.  Arminius  suffered  the  Romans 
to  march  out  from  their  camp,  to  form  first  in  line  for  action,  and 
then  in  column  for  marching,  without  the  show  of  opposition.  For 
some  distance  Varus  was  allowed  to  move  on,  only  harassed  by 
slight  skirmishes,  but  struggling  with  difficulty  through  the  broken 
ground,  the  toil  and  distress  of  his  men  being  aggravated  b}^  heavy 
torrents  of  rain,  which  burst  upon  the  devoted  legions  as  if  the 
angry  gods  of  Germany  were  pouring  out  the  vials  of  their  wrath 
upon  the  invaders.  After  some  Httle  time  their  van  approached  a 
ridge  of  high  wood}'  ground,  which  is  one  of  the  offshoots  of  the 
great  Hercynian  forest,  and  is  situate  between  the  modem  villages 
of  Driburg  and  Bielefeld.  Arminius  had  caused  barricades  of  hewn 
trees  to  be  formed  here,  so  as  to  add  to  the  natural  difficulties  of 
the  passage.  Fatigue  and  discouragement  now  began  to  betray 
themselves  in  the  Roman  ranks.  Their  line  became  less  steady ; 
baggage- wagons  were  abandoned  from  the  impossibility  of  forcing 
them  along;  and,  as  this  happened,  many  soldiers  left  their  ranks 
and  crowded  round  the  wagons  to  secure  the  most  valuable  portions 
of  their  property;  each  was  busy  about  his  own  affairs,  and  pur- 
posely slow  in  hearing  the  word  of  command  from  his  officers. 
Arminius  now  gave  the  signal  for  a  general  attack.  The  fierce 
shouts  of  the  Germans  pealed  through  the  gloom  of  the  forests, 
and  in  thronging  multitudes  they  assailed  the  flanks  of  the  invad- 
ers, pouring  in  clouds  of  darts  on  the  encumbered  legionaries,  as 
they  struggled  up  the  glens  or  floundered  in  the  morasses,  and 


THE   VICTORY   OF    ARMINIUS  143 

watching  every  opportmiity  of  charging  through  the  intervals  of 
the  disjointed  column,  and  so  cutting  off  the  communication  be- 
tween its  several  brigades.  Arminius,  -with  a  chosen  band  of  per- 
sonal retainers  round  him,  cheered  on  his  countrymen  by  voice  and 
example.  He  and  his  men  aimed  their  weapons  particularly  at  the 
horses  of  the  Roman  cavalry.  The  wounded  animals,  slipping 
about  in  the  mire  and  their  own  blood,  threw  their  riders  and 
plunged  among  the  ranks  of  the  legions,  disordering  all  round 
them.  Varus  now  ordered  the  troops  to  be  countermarched,  in 
the  hope  of  reaching  the  nearest  Roman  garrison  on  the  Lippe. 
But  retreat  now  was  as  impracticable  as  advance ;  and  the  falling 
back  of  the  Romans  only  augmented  the  courage  of  their  assailants, 
and  caused  fiercer  and  more  frequent  charges  on  the  flanks  of  the 
disheartened  army.  The  Roman  officer  who  commanded  the  cav- 
alry, Numonius  Vala,  rode  off  with  his  squadrons  in  the  vain  hope 
of  escaping  by  thus  abandoning  his  comrades.  Unable  to  keep 
together,  or  force  their  way  across  the  woods  and  swamps,  the 
horsemen  were  overpowered  in  detail,  and  slaughtered  to  the  last 
man.  The  Roman  infantry  still  held  together  and  resisted,  but 
more  through  the  instinct  of  discipline  and  bravery  than  from  any 
hope  of  success  or  escape.  Varus,  after  being  severely  wounded 
in  a  charge  of  the  Germans  against  his  part  of  the  column,  com- 
mitted suicide  to  avoid  falling  into  the  hands  of  those  whom  he 
had  exasperated  by  his  oppressions.  One  of  the  lieutenant-generals 
of  the  army  fell  fighting ;  the  other  surrendered  to  the  enemy.  But 
mercy  to  a  fallen  foe  had  never  been  a  Roman  virtue,  and  those 
among  her  legions  who  now  laid  down  their  arms  in  hope  of  quar- 
ter drank  deep  of  the  cup  of  suffering  which  Rome  had  held  to 
the  lips  of  many  a  brave  but  unfortunate  enemy.  The  infuriated 
Germans  slaughtered  their  oppressors  "u-ith  deliberate  ferocity,  and 
those  prisoners  who  were  not  hewn  to  pieces  on  the  spot  were  only 
preserved  to  perish  by  a  more  cruel  death  in  cold  blood. 

The  bulk  of  the  Roman  army  fought  steadily  and  stubbornly, 
frequently  repelling  the  masses  of  the  assailants,  but  gradually' 
losing  the  compactness  of  their  array,  and  becoming  weaker  and 
weaker  beneath  the  incessant  shower  of  darts  and  the  reiterated 
assaults  of  the  vigorous  and  unencumbered  Germans.     At  last,  in 


144  GREAT   BATTLES    OF    ALL   NATIONS 

a  series  of  desperate  attacks,  the  column  was  pierced  through  and 
through,  two  of  the  eagles  captured,  and  the  Roman  host,  which 
on  the  yester  morning  had  marched  forth  in  such  pride  and  might, 
now  broken  up  into  confused  fragments,  either  fell  fighting  beneath 
the  overpowering  numbers  of  the  enemy,  or  perished  in  .the  swamps 
and  woods  in  unavailing  efforts  at  flight.  Few,  very  few,  ever  saw 
again  the  left  bank  of  the  Rhine.  One  body  of  brave  veterans, 
arraying  themselves  in  a  ring  on  a  little  mound,  beat  off  every 
charge  of  the  Germans,  and  prolonged  their  honorable  resistance 
to  the  close  of  that  dreadful  day.  The  traces  of  a  feeble  attempt 
at  forming  a  ditch  and  mound  attested  in  after  years  the  spot  where 
the  last  of  the  Romans  passed  their  night  of  suffering  and  despair. 
But  on  the  morrow,  this  remnant  also,  worn  out  with  hunger, 
wounds,  and  toil,  was  charged  by  the  victorious  Germans,  and 
either  massacred  on  the  spot,  or  offered  up  in  fearful  rites  at  the 
altars  of  the  deities  of  the  old  mytholog}^  of  the  North. 

A  gorge  in  the  mountain  ridge,  through  which  runs  the  modern 
road  between  Paderborn  and  Pyrmont,  leads  from  the  spot  where 
the  heat  of  the  battle  raged  to  the  Extersteine,  a  cluster  of  bold  and 
grotesque  rocks  of  sandstone,  near  which  is  a  small  sheet  of  water, 
overshadowed  by  a  grove  of  aged  trees.  According  to  local  tradi- 
tion, this  was  one  of  the  sacred  groves  of  the  ancient  Germans, 
and  it  was  here  that  the  Roman  captives  were  slain  in  sacrifice  by 
the  victorious  warriors  of  Arminius. 

Never  was  victory  more  decisive,  never  was  the  liberation  of  an 
oppressed  people  more  instantaneous  and  complete.  Throughout 
Germany  the  Roman  garrisons  were  assailed  and  cut  off;  and 
within  a  few  weeks  after  Varus  had  fallen,  the  German  soil  was 
freed  from  the  foot  of  an  invader. 

At  Rome  the  tidings  of  the  battle  were  received  with  an  agony 
of  terror,  the  reports  of  which  we  should  deem  exaggerated,  did 
they  not  come  from  Roman  historians  themselves.  They  not  only 
tell  emphatically  how  great  was  the  awe  which  the  Romans  felt  of 
the  prowess  of  the  Germans,  if  their  various  tribes  could  be  brought 
to  unite  for  a  common  purpose,  but  also  they  reveal  how  weakened 
and  debased  the  population  of  Italy  had  become.  Dion  Cassius  says 
(lib.  Ivi.,  sec.  23) :  "Then  Augustus,  when  he  heard  the  calamity  of 


THE    VICTORY    OF    ARMINIUS  145 

Varus,  rent  his  garment,  and  was  in  great  affliction  for  the  troops 
ho  had  lost,  and  for  terror  respecting  the  Germans  and  the  Gauls. 
And  his  chief  alarm  was,  that  he  expected  them  to  push  on  against 
Italy  and  Rome ;  and  there  remained  no  Roman  j'outh  fit  for  mili- 
tary duty  that  were  worth  speaking  of,  and  the  allied  populations 
that  were  at  all  serviceable  had  been  wasted  away.  Yet  he  pre- 
pared for  the  emergency  as  well  as  his  means  allowed ;  and  when 
none  of  the  citizens  of  military  age  were  willing  to  enlist  he  made 
them  cast  lots,  and  punished  by  confiscation  of  goods  and  disfran- 
chisement every  fifth  man  among  those  under  thirty-five,  and  every 
tenth  man  of  those  above  that  age.  At  last,  when  he  found  that 
not  even  thus  could  he  make  many  come  forward,  he  put  some  of 
them  to  death.  So  he  made  a  conscription  of  discharged  veterans 
and  of  emancipated  slaves,  and,  collecting  as  large  a  force  as  he 
could,  sent  it,  under  Tiberius,  with  all  speed  into  Germany." 

Dion  mentions,  also,  a  number  of  terrific  portents  that  were 
believed  to  have  occurred  at  the  time,  and  the  narration  of  which 
is  not  immaterial,  as  it  shows  the  state  of  the  public  mind,  ^^ihen 
such  things  were  so  believed  in  and  so  interpreted.  The  summits 
of  the  Alps  were  said  to  have  fallen,  and  three  columns  of  fire  to 
have  blazed  up  from  them.  In  the  Campus  Martins,  the  temple  of 
the  war-god,  from  whom  the  founder  of  Rome  had  sprung,  was 
struck  by  a  thunderbolt.  The  nightly  heavens  glowed  several 
times,  as  if  on  fire.  Many  comets  blazed  forth  together;  and  fiery 
meteors,  shaped  like  spears,  had  shot  from  the  northern  quarter  of 
the  sky  down  into  the  Roman  camps.  It  was  said,  too,  that  a 
statue  of  Victor}-,  which  had  stood  at  a  place  on  the  frontier,  point- 
ing the  way  toward  Germany,  had,  of  its  own  accord,  turned  round, 
and  now  pointed  to  Italy.  These  and  other  prodigies  were  believed 
by  the  multitude  to  accompany  the  slaughter  of  Varus's  legions, 
and  to  manifest  the  anger  of  the  gods  against  Rome.  Augustus 
himself  was  not  free  from  superstition;  but  on  this  occasion  no 
supernatural  terrors  were  needed  to  increase  the  alarm  and  grief 
that  he  felt,  and  which  made  him,  even  months  after  the  news  of 
the  battle  had  arrived,  often  beat  his  head  against  the  wall  and 
exclaim,  "Varus,  give  me  back  my  legions."  We  learn  this  from 
his  biographer,  Suetonius;  and,  indeed,  every  ancient  writer  who 


146  GREAT   BATTLES    OF   ALL    NATIONS 

alludes  to  the  overthrow  of  Varus  attests  the  importance  of  the 
blow  against  the  Roman  power  and  the  bitterness  with  which  it 
was  felt. 

The  Germans  did  not  pursue  their  victory  beyond  their  own 
territory;  but  that  victory  secured  at  once  and  forever  the  inde- 
pendence of  the  Teutonic  race.  Rome  sent,  indeed,  her  legions 
again  into  Germany,  to  parade  a  temporary  superiority,  but  all 
hopes  of  permanent  conquests  were  abandoned  by  Augustus  and 
his  successors. 

The  blow  which  Arminius  had  struck  never  was  forgotten. 
Roman  fear  disguised  itself  under  the  specious  title  of  moderation, 
and  the  Rhine  became  the  acknowledged  boundary  of  the  two 
nations  until  the  fifth  century  of  our  era,  when  the  Germans 
became  the  assailants,  and  carved  with  their  conquering  swords 
the  provinces  of  imperial  Rome  into  the  kingdoms  of  modern 
Europe.  [Creasy. 


CHAPTER   VII 

THE   SACK   OF   ROME 

ALARIC    THE    GOTH— THE    DECADENCE   OF   THE    ETERNAL   CITY 

408—412 

IN  the  beginning  of  the  fifth  century  of  the  present  era,  a  bar- 
barian pitched  his  camp  under  the  walls  of  Rome.  His  name 
was  Alaric.  He  was  King  of  the  Goths.  Previously,  during 
1  period  of  six  hundred  and  nineteen  years,  Rome  had  never  been 
violated  by  the  presence  of  a  foreign  enemy.  The  unsuccessful 
expedition  of  Hannibal  is  a  case  in  point.  At  the  beginning  of  the 
Punic  war  the  Roman  people  consisted  of  two  hundred  and  fifty 
thousand  citizens  of  an  age  to  bear  arms.  Fifty  thousand  had 
already  died  in  the  defense  of  their  country ;  and  the  twenty-three 
legions,   which  were   employed   in   the   different  camps  of   Italy, 


THE   SACK    OF    ROME  147 

Greece,  Sardinia,  Sicily,  and  Spain,  required  about  one  hundred 
thousand  men.  But  there  still  remained  an  equal  number  in  Rome, 
and  the  adjacent  territory,  who  were  animated  by  the  same  intrepid 
courage;  and  every  citizen  was  trained,  from  Lis  earliest  youth,  in 
the  discipline  and  exercise  of  a  soldier.  Hannibal  was  astonished 
by  the  constancy  of  the  senate,  v/ho,  without  raising  the  siege  of 
Capua,  or  recalling  their  scattered  forces,  expected  his  approach. 
He  encamped  on  the  banks  of  the  Anio,  at  the  distance  of  three 
miles  from  the  city;  and  he  was  soon  informed  that  the  ground 
on  which  he  had  pitched  his  tent  was  sold  at  an  adequate  price  at 
a  public  auction ;  and  that  a  body  of  troops  was  dismissed  by  an 
opposite  road  to  re-enforce  the  legions  of  Spain.  He  led  his  Afri- 
cans to  the  gates  of  Rome,  where  he  found  three  armies  in  order  of 
battle,  prepared  to  receive  him ;  but  Hannibal  dreaded  the  event  of 
a  combat,  from  which  he  could  not  hope  to  escape  unless  he  de- 
stroyed the  last  of  his  enemies ;  and  his  speedy  retreat  confessed 
the  invincible  courage  of  the  Romans. 

But  times  had  changed.  The  lands  of  Italy,  which  had  been 
originally  divided  among  the  families  of  free  and  indigent  proprie- 
tors, were  insensibly  purchased  or  usurped  by  the  avarice  of  the 
nobles ;  and  in  the  age  which  preceded  the  fall  of  the  republic  it  was 
computed  that  only  two  thousand  citizens  were  possessed  of  an  inde- 
pendent substance.  Yet  as  long  as  the  people  bestowed,  by  their 
suffrages,  the  honors  of  the  state,  the  command  of  the  legions,  and 
the  administration  of  wealthy  provinces,  their  conscious  pride  allevi- 
ated in  some  measure  the  hardships  of  poverty;  and  their  wants 
were  seasonably  supplied  by  the  ambitious  liberality  of  the  candi- 
dates, who  aspired  to  secure  a  venal  majority  in  the  thirty-five 
tribes,  or  the  hundred  and  ninety-three  centuries, .  of  Rome.  But 
when  the  prodigal  commons  had  imprudently  alienated  not  only 
the  use,  but  the  inheritance,  of  power,  they  sank,  under  the  reign 
of  the  Csesars,  into  a  vile  and  wretched  populace,  which  must,  in  a 
few  generations,  have  been  totally  extinguished,  if  it  had  not  been 
continually  recruited  by  the  manumission  of  slaves  and  the  influx 
of.  strang'Ts.  As  early  as  the  time  of  Hadrian,  it  was  the  just  com- 
plaint of  the  ingenious  natives,  that  the,  capital  had  attracted  the 
vices  of  the  universe  and  the  manners  of  the  most  opposite  nations. 


148  GREAT    BATTLES    OF    ALL    NATIONS 

The  intemperance  of  the  Gauls,  the  cx^inning  and  levity  of  the  Greeks, 
the  savage  obstinacy  of  the  Egyptians  and  Jews,  the  servile  temper 
of  the  Asiatics,  and  the  dissolute,  effeminate  prostitution  of  the 
Syrians  were  mingled  in  the  various  multitude :  which,  under  the 
proud  and  false  denomination  of  Romans,  presumed  to  despise  their 
fellow-subjects,  and  even  their  sovereigns,  who  dwelt  beyond  the 
precincts  of  the  Eternal  City. 

Yet  the  name  of  that  city  was  still  pronounced  with  respect ; 
the  frequent  and  capricious  tumults  of  its  inhabitans  were  indulged 
with  impunity ;  and  the  successors  of  Constantine,  instead  of  crush- 
ing the  last  remains  of  the  democracy,  by  the  strong  arm  of  mili- 
tary power,  embraced  the  mild  policy  of  Augustus,  and  studied  to 
relieve  the  poverty,  and  to  amuse  the  idleness,  of  an  innumerable 
people.  For  the  convenience  of  the  lazy  plebeians,  the  monthly 
distributions  of  corn  were  converted  into  a  daily  allowance  of 
bread ;  a  great  number  of  ovens  were  constructed  and  maintained 
at  the  public  expense ;  and  at  the  appointed  hour  each  citizen,  who 
was  furnished  with  a  ticket,  ascended  the  flight  of  steps  which  had 
been  assigned  to  his  peculiar  quarter  or  division,  and  received, 
either  as  a  gift  or  at  a  very  low  price,  a  loaf  of  bread,  of  the  weight 
of  three  pounds,  for  the  use  of  his  family.  The  forest  of  Lucania, 
^vdlose  acorns  fattened  large  droves  of  wild  hogs,  afforded  as  a 
species  of  tribute  a  plentiful  supply  of  cheap  and  wholesome  meat. 
During  five  months  of  the  year  a  regular  allowance  of  bacon  was 
distributed  to  the  poorer  citizens ;  and  the  annual  consumption  of 
the  capital,  at  a  time  when  it  was  much  declined  from  its  former 
luster,  was  ascertained,  by  an  edict  of  Valentinian  the  Third,  at 
three  millions  six  hundred  and  twenty-eight  thousand  pounds.  In 
the  manners  of  antiquity,  the  use  of  oil  was  indispensable  for  the 
lamp  as  well  as  for  the  bath ;  and  the  annual  tax,  which  was  im- 
posed on  Africa  for  the  benefit  of  Rome,  amounted  to  the  weight  of 
three  millions  of  pounds,  to  the  measure,  perhaps,  of  three  hundred 
thousand  English  gallons.  The  anxiety  of  Augustus  to  provide  the 
metropolis  with  sufficient  plenty  of  corn  was  npt  extended  beyond 
that  necessary  article  of  human  subsistence ;  and  when  the  popular 
clamor  accused  the  dearness  and  scarcity  of  wine,  a  proclamation 
was  issued  by  the  gi'ave  reformer,  to  remind  his  subjects  that  no 


THE   SACK    OF   ROME  HQ 

man  could  reasonably  complain  of  thirst,  since  the  aqueducts  of 
^Krippa  had  introduced  into  the  city  so  many  copious  streams  of 
'pure  and  salubrious  water.  This  rigid  sobriety  wa-s  msens.bly 
relaxed;  and  although  the  generous  design  of  AureUan  does  not 
appear  to  have  been  executed  in  its  full  extent,  the  use  of  w,ne  was 
allowed  on  very  easy  and  Uberal  terms.  The  admm:strat.on  of  the 
public  cellars  was  delegated  to  a  magistrate  of  honorable  rank;  and 
a  considerable  part  of  the  vmtage  of  Campania  was  reserved  for  the 
fortunate  inhabitants  of  Rome. 

The  stupendous  aqueducts,  so  justly  celebrated  by  the  praises  o 
Augustus  himself,  replenished  the  Thermc,  or  baths,  which  had 
been  constructed  in  every  part  of  the  city,  with  imperial  magm- 
ficene      The  baths  of  Antoninus  Caracalla,  which  were  open  at 
stated  hours  for  the  indiscriminate  service  of  the  senators  arid  the 
people,  contained  above  sixteen  hundred  seats  of  marble;  and  more 
than   three   thousand  were   reckoned  in  the  baths  of  Diocletian. 
The  waUs  of  the  lofty  apartments  were  covered  with  cnrious  mo- 
saics, that  imitated  the  art  of  the  pencil  in  the  elegance  of  design 
and  the  variety  of  colors.     The  Egyptian  granite  was  beautifully 
incrusted  with  the  precious  green  marble  of  Numidia;  the  perpetual 
sti-eam  of  hot  water  was  poured  into  the  capacious  basins  through 
so  many  wide  mouths  of  bright  and  massy  silver;  and  the  mea.ies. 
Roman  could  purchase  ,vith  a  small  copper  coin  the  daily  enjoy- 
ment of  a  scene  of  pomp  and  luxury  which  might  excite  the  envy 
„f  the  kings  of  Asia.     From  these  stately  palaces  issued  a  swarm  ot 
dirty  and  ragged  plebeians,  without  shoes  and  without  a  mantle; 
who  loitered  away  whole  days  in  the  street  or  Forum,  to  hear  news 
and  to  hold  disputes;  who  dissipated  in  extravagant  gammg  the 
miserable  pittance  of  their  wives  and  children;  and  spent  the  hours 
of  the  night  in  obscure  taverns  and  brothels,  in  the  mdulgence  of 
gross  and  vulgar  sensuality. 

But  the  most  lively  and  splendid  amusement  of  the  idle  multi- 
tude depended  on  the  frequent  exhibitions  of  public  games  and 
spectacles.  The  piety  of  Christian  princes  had  suppressed  the  in- 
human combats  of  gladiators;  but  the  Roman  people  "td  ~ns«^- 
ered  the  Circus  as  their  home,  their  temple,  and  the  -at  of  the 
repubUc.     The  impatient  crowd  rushed  at  the  dawn  of   day  to 


I50  GREAT   BATTLES   OF   ALL   NATIONS 

secure  their  places,  and  there  were  many  who  passed  a  sleepless 
and  anxious  night  in  the  adjacent  porticoes.  From  the  morning 
to  the  evening,  careless  of  the  sun  or  of  the  rain,  the  spectators, 
who  sometimes  amounted  to  the  number  of  four  hundred  thousand, 
remained  in  eager  attention;  their  ej^es  fixed  on  the  horses  and 
charioteers,  their  minds  agitated  with  hope  and  fear  for  the  success 
of  the  colors  which  they  espoused;  and  the  happiness  of  Rome 
appeared  to  hang  on  the  event  of  a  race.  The  same  immoderate 
ardor  inspired  their  clamors  and  their  applause,  as  often  as  they 
were  entertained  with  the  hunting  of  wild  beasts  and  the  various 
modes  of  theatrical  representation.  These  representations  in  mod- 
ern capitals  may  deserve  to  be  considered  as  a  pure  and  elegant 
school  of  taste,  and  perhaps  of  virtue.  But  the  tragic  and  comic 
muse  of  the  Romans,  who  seldom  aspired  beyond  the  imitation  of 
Attic  genius,  had  been  almost  totally  silent  since  the  fall  of  the 
republic;  and  their  place  was  unworthily  occupied  by  licentious 
farce,  effeminate  music,  and  splendid  pageantry.  The  pantomimes, 
who  maintained  their  reputation  from  the  age  of  Augustus  to  the 
sixth  centurj^,  expressed,  without  the  use  of  words,  the  various 
fables  of  the  gods  and  heroes  of  antiquity;  and  the  perfection  of 
their  art,  which  sometimes  disarmed  the  gravity  of  the  philosopher, 
always  excited  the  applause  and  wonder  of  the  people.  The  vast 
and  magnificent  theaters  of  Rome  were  filled  by  three  thousand 
female  dancers  and  by  three  thousand  singers,  with  the  masters  of 
the  respective  choruses.  Such  was  the  popular  favor  which  they 
enjoyed  that,  in  a  time  of  scarcity,  when  all  strangers  were  ban- 
ished from  the  city,  the  merit  of  contributing  to  the  public  pleasures 
exempted  them  from  a  law,  which  was  strictly  executed  against  the 
professors  of  the  liberal  arts. 

It  is  said  that  the  foolish  curiosit}'  of  Elagabalus  attempted  to 
discover,  from  the  quantity  of  spiders'  webs,  the  number  of  the 
inhabitants  of  Rome.  A  more  rational  method  of  inquiry  might 
not  have  been  undeserving  of  the  attention  of  the  wisest  princes, 
who  could  easilj'"  have  resolved  a  question  so  important  for  the 
Roman  government  and  so  interesting  to  succeeding  ages.  The 
births  and  deaths  of  the  citizens  were  duly  registered ;  and  if  any 
writer    of    antiquity   had    condescended    to    mention    the   annual 


THE   SACK    OF    ROME  151 

amount,  or  the  common  average,  we  might  now  produce  some  satis- 
factory calculation,  which  would  destroy  the  extravagant  assertions 
of  critics,  and  perhaps  confirm  the  modest  and  probable  conjectures 
of  philosophers.  The  most  diligent  researches  have  collected  only 
the  following  circumstances;  which,  slight  and  imperfect  as  they 
are,  may  tend  in  some  degree  to  illustrate  the  question  of  the  popu- 
lousness  of  ancient  Rome.  When  the  capital  of  the  empire  was 
besieged  by  the  Goths,  the  circuit  of  the  walls  was  accurately 
measured  by  Ammonius  the  mathematician,  who  found  it  equal  to 
twenty-one  miles.  It  should  not  be  forgotten  that  the  form  of  the 
city  was  almost  that  of  a  circle;  the  geometrical  figure  which  is 
known  to  contain  the  largest  space  within  any  given  circumference. 
The  architect  Vitruvius,  who  flourished  in  the  Augustan  age,  and 
whose  evidence,  on  this  occasion,  has  peculiar  weight  and  author- 
ity, observes  that  the  innumerable  habitations  of  the  Roman  people 
would  have  spread  themselves  far  beyond  the  narrow  hmits  of  the 
city;  and  that  the  want  of  ground,  which  was  probably  contracted 
on  every  side  by  gardens  and  villas,  suggested  the  common  though 
inconvenient  practice  of  raising  the  houses  to  a  considerable  height 
in  the  air.  But  the  loftiness  of  these  buildings,  which  often  con- 
sisted of  hast}"  work  and  insufficient  materials,  was  the  cause  of 
frequent  and  fatal  accidents;  and  it  was  repeatedly  enacted  hy 
Augustus,  as  well  as  by  N'ero,  that  the  heiglit  of  private  edifices, 
within  the  walls  of  Rome,  should  not  exceed  the  measure  of  seventy 
feet  from  the  ground.  Juvenal  laments,  as  it  should  seem  from  his 
own  experience,  the  hardships  of  the  poorer  citizens,  to  whom  he 
addresses  the  salutary  advice  of  emigrating,  without  delaj^  from 
the  smoke  of  Rome,  since  they  might  purchase,  in  the  httle  towns 
of  Italy,  a  cheerful,  commodious  dwelHng  at  the  same  price  which 
they  annually  paid  for  a  dark  and  miserable  lodging.  House-rent 
was  therefore  immoderatel}'  dear:  the  rich  acquired,  at  an  enor- 
mous expense,  the  ground,  which  they  covered  with  palaces  and 
gardens;  but  the  body  of  the  Roman  people  was  crowded  into  a 
narrow  space ;  and  the  different  floors  and  apartments  of  the  same 
house  were  divided,  as  it  is  still  the  custom  of  Paris  and  other  cities, 
among  several  families  of  plebeians.  The  total  number  of  houses 
in  the  fourteen  regions  of  the  city  is  accurately  stated  in  the  de= 


152  GREAT    BATTLES    OF    ALL    NATIONS 

scription  of  Rome,  composed  under  the  reign  of  Theodosius,  and 
they  amount  to  forty-eight  thousand  three  hundred  and  eighty-two. 
The  two  classes  of  domus  and  of  insidce,  into  which  they  are 
divided,  include  all  the  habitations  of  the  capital  of  ever}^  rank  and 
condition,  from  the  marble  palace  of  the  Anicii,  with  a  numerous 
estabHshment  of  freedmen  and  slaves,  to  the  lofty  and  narrow  lodg- 
ing-house, where  the  poet  Codrus  and  his  wife  were  permitted  to 
hire  a  wretched  garret  immediately  under  the  tiles.  If  we  adopt  the 
same  average,  which,  under  similar  circumstances,  has  been  found 
applicable  to  Paris,  and  indifferently  allow  about  twenty-five  per- 
sons for  each  house,  of  every  degree,  we  may  fairly  estimate  the 
inhabitants  of  Rome  at  twelve  hundred  thousand :  a  number  which 
cannot  be  thought  excessive  for  the  capital  of  a  mighty  empire, 
though  it  exceeds  the  populousness  of  the  greatest  cities  of  modern 
Europe. 

Such  was  the  state  of  Rome,  under  the  reign  of  Honorius,  at 
the  time  when  the  Gothic  army  formed  the  siege,  or  rather  the 
blockade,  of  the  city.  By  a  skillful  disposition  of  his  numerous 
forces,  who  impatiently  watched  the  moment  of  an  assault,  Alaric 
encompassed  the  walls,  commanded  the  twelve  principal  gates, 
intercepted  all  communication  Avith  the  adjacent  country,  and 
vigilantly  guarded  the  navigation  of  the  Tiber,  from  which  the 
Romans  derived  the  surest  and  most  plentiful  supply  of  provisions. 
The  first  emotions  of  the  nobles  and  of  the  people  were  those  of 
surprise  and  indignation  that  a  vile  barbarian  should  dare  to  insult 
the  capital  of  the  world ;  but  their  arrogance  was  soon  humbled  by 
misfortune,  and  their  unmanh^  rage,  instead  of  being  directed 
against  an  enemy  in  arms,  was  meanly  exercised  on  a  defenseless 
and  innocent  victim.  Perhaps  in  the  person  of  Serena  the  Romans 
might  have  respected  the  niece  of  Theodosius,  the  aunt,  nay,  even 
the  adopted  mother,  of  the  reigning  emperor ;  but  they  abhorred 
the  widow  of  Stilicho,  and  they  listened  with  credulous  passion  to 
the  tale  of  calumny  which  accused  her  of  maintaining  a  secret  and 
criminal  correspondence  with  the  Gothic  invader.  Actuated  or 
overawed  by  the  same  popular  frenzy,  the  senate,  without  requir- 
ing any  evidence  of  her  guilt,  pronounced  the  sentence  of  her  death. 
Serena  was  ignominiously  strangled,  and  the  infatuated  multitud© 


THE    SACK    OF    ROME  153 

were  astonished  to  find  that  this  cruel  act  of  injustice  did  not  imme- 
diately produce  the  retreat  of  the  barbarians  and  the  dehverance  of 
the  city.     That  unfortimate  city  gradually  experienced  the  distress 
of  scarcity,  and  at  length  the  horrid  calamities  of  famine.     The 
daily  allowance  of  three  pounds  of  bread  was  reduced  to  one-half, 
to  one-third,  to  nothing;   and  the  price  of  corn  still  continued  to 
rise  in  a  rapid  and  extravagant  proportion.     The  poorer  citizens, 
who  were  unable  to  purchase  the  necessaries  of  life,  sohcited  the 
precarious  charity  of  the  rich;   and  for  a  while  the  public  misery 
was  alleviated  by  the  humanity  of  Lseta,  the  widow  of  the  emperor 
Gratian,  who  had  fixed  her  residence  at  Rome,  and  consecrated 
to  the  use  of  the  indigent  the  princely  revenue  which  she  annually 
received  from  the  grateful  successors  of  her  husband.     But  these 
private  and  temporary  donatives  were  insuflficient  to  appease  the 
hunger  of  a  numerous  people,  and  the  progress  of  famine  invaded 
the  marble  palaces  of   the  senators  themselves.     The  persons  of 
both  sexes,  who  had  been  educated  in  the  enjoyment  of  ease  and 
luxury,  discovered  how  little  is  requisite  to  supply  tiie  demands  of 
nature,  and  lavished  their  unavailing  treasures  of  gold  and  silver 
to  obtain  the  coarse  and  scanty  sustenance  which  they  would  for- 
merly have  rejected  with  disdain.     The  food  the  most  repugnant 
to  sense  or  imagination,  the  aliments  the  most  unwholesome  and 
pernicious  to  the  constitution,  were  eagerly  devoured  and  fiercely 
disputed  by  the  rage  of  hunger.     A  dark  suspicion  was  entertained 
that  some  desperate  wretches  fed  on  the  bodies  of  their  fellow- 
creatures,  whom  they  had  secretly  murdered;    and  even  mothers 
(such  was  the  horrid  conflict  of  the  two  most  powerful  instincts 
implanted  by  nature  in  the  human  breast),  even  mothers  are  said 
to  have  tasted  the  flesh  of  their  slaughtered  infants.     Many  thou- 
sands of  the  inhabitants  of  Rome  expired  in  their  houses  or  in  the 
streets  for  want  of  sustenance ;  and  as  the  pubhc  sepulchers  without 
the  walls  were  in  the  power  of  the  enemy,  the  stench  which  arose 
from  so  many  putrid  and  unburied  carcasses  infected  the  au- ;  and 
the  miseries  of  famine  were  succeeded  and  aggravated  by  the  con- 
tagion of  a  pestilential  disease.      The  assurances  of  speedy  and 
effectual  relief  which  were  repeatedly  transmitted  from  the  court 
of  Ravenna,  supported,  for  some  time,  the  fainting  resolution  of  the 


154       GREAT  BATTLES  OF  ALL  NATIONS 

Romans,  till  at  length  the  despair  of  any  human  aid  tempted  them 
to  accept  the  offers  of  a  preternatural  deliverance.  Pompeianus, 
prefect  of  the  city,  had  been  persuaded,  b}^  the  art  or  fanaticism 
of  some  Tuscan  diviners,  that,  by  the  mysterious  force  of  spells 
and  sacrifices,  they  could  extract  the  lightning  from  the  clouds, 
and  point  those  celestial  fires  against  the  camp  of  the  barbarians. 
The  important  secret  was  communicated  to  Innocent,  the  bishop  of 
Rome;  and  the  successor  of  St.  Peter  is  accused^  perhaps  without 
foundation,  of  preferring  the  safety  of  the  republic  to  the  rigid 
severity  of  the  Christian  worship.  But  when  the  question  was 
agitated  in  the  senate ;  when  it  was  proposed,  as  an  essential  con- 
dition, that  those  sacrifices  should  be  performed  in  the  Capitol,  by 
the  authority  and  in  the  presence  of  the  magistrates;  the  majorit}'- 
of  that  respectable  assembly,  apprehensive  either  of  the  divine  or 
of  the  imperial  displeasure,  refused  to  join  in  an  act  which  appeared 
almost  equivalent  to  the  public  restoration  of  Paganism. 

The  last  resource  of  the  Romans  was  in  the  clemency,  or  at  least 
in  the  moderation,  of  the  king  of  the  Goths.  The  senate,  who  in 
this  emergency  assumed  the  supreme  powers  of  government,  ap- 
pointed two  embassadors  to  negotiate  with  the  enemy.  This  impor- 
tant trust  was  delegated  to  Basihus,  a  senator  of  Spanish  extraction, 
and  already  conspicuous  in  the  administration  of  provinces ;  and  to 
John,  the  first  tribune  of  the  notaries,  who  was  pecuharly  quahfied 
by  his  dexterity  in  business,  as  well  as  bj"  his  former  intimacy  with 
the  Gothic  prince.  When  they  were  introduced  into  his  presence 
they  declared,  perhaps  in  a  more  lofty  style  than  became  their 
abject  condition,  that  the  Romans  were  resolved  to  maintain  their 
dignity,  either  in  peace  or  war;  and  that,  if  Alaric  refused  them  a 
fair  and  honorable  capitulation,  he  might  sound  his  trumpets  and 
prepare  to  give  battle  to  an  innumerable  people,  exercised  in  arms 
and  animated  by  despair.  "The  thicker  the  hay  the  easier  it  is 
mowed"  was  the  concise  reply  of  the  barbarian;  and  this  rustic 
metaphor  was  accompanied  by  a  loud  and  insulting  laugh,  expres- 
sive of  his  contempt  for  the  menaces  of  an  unwarlike  populace, 
enervated  by  luxury  before  they  were  emaciated  by  famine.  He 
then  condescended  to  fix  the  ransom  which  he  would  accept  as  the 
price  of  his  retreat  from  the  walls  of  Rome :  all  the  gold  and  silver 


THE   SACK   OF   ROME  155 

in  the  city,  whether  it  were  the  property  of  the  state  or  of  individ- 
uals; all  the  rich  and  precious  movables;  and  all  the  slaves  who 
could  prove  their  title  to  the  name  of  harharians.  The  ministers 
of  the  senate  presumed  to  ask  in  a  modest  and  suppliant  tone:  "If 
such,  oh  king!  are  your  demands,  what  do  you  intend  to  leave 
us?"  — "Your  lives,"  repUed  the  haughty  conqueror.  They 
trembled  and  retired.  Yet  before  they  retired  a  short  suspension 
of  arms  was  granted,  which  allowed  some  time  for  a  more  temper- 
ate negotiation.  The  stern  features  of  Alaric  were  insensibly  re- 
laxed ;  he  abated  much  of  the  rigor  of  his  terms ;  and  at  length 
consented  to  raise  the  siege  on  the  immediate  payment  of  five 
thousand  pounds  of  gold,  of  thirty  thousand  pounds  of  silver,  of 
four  thousand  robes  of  silk,  of  three  thousand  pieces  of  fine  scarlet 
cloth,  and  of  three  thousand  pounds'  weight  of  pepper.  But  the 
pubhc  treasury  was  exhausted;  the  annual  rents  of  the  great  estates 
in  Italy  and  the  provinces  were  intercepted  by  the  calamities  of 
war ;  the  gold  and  gems  had  been  exchanged,  during  the  famine, 
for  the  vilest  sustenance ;  the  hoards  of  secret  wealth  were  still 
concealed  by  the  obstinacy  of  avarice ;  and  some  remains  of  con- 
secrated spoils  afforded  the  only  resource  that  could  avert  the 
impending  ruin  of  the  city.  As  soon  as  the  Romans  had  satisfied 
the  rapacious  demands  of  Alaric,  they  were  restored  in  some  meas- 
ure to  the  enjoyment  of  peace  and  plenty.  Several  of  the  gates 
were  cautiously  opened;  the  importation  of  provisions  from  the 
river  and  the  adjacent  country  was  no  longer  obstructed  by  the 
Goths ;  the  citizens  resorted  in  crowds  to  the  free  market,  which 
was  held  during  three  days  in  the  suburbs ;  and  while  the  mer- 
chants who  undertook  this  gainful  trade  made  a  considerable  profit, 
the  future  subsistence  of  the  city  was  secured  by  the  ample  maga- 
zines which  were  deposited  in  the  public  and  private  granaries.  A 
more  regular  discipline  than  could  have  been  expected  was  main- 
tained in  the  camp  of  Alaric;  and  the  wise  barbarian  justified  his 
regard  for  the  faith  of  treaties  by  the  just  severity  with  which 
he  chastised  a  party  of  Hcentious  Goths  who  had  insulted  some 
Roman  citizens  on  the  road  to  Ostia.  His  army,  enriched  by  the 
contributions  of  the  capital,  slowly  advanced  into  the  fair  and 
fruitful  province  of  Tuscany,  where  he  proposed  to  estabhsh  his 


156  GREAT   BATTLES    OF   ALL    NATIONS 

winter  quarters;  and  the  Gothic  standard  became  the  refuge  of 
forty  thousand  barbarian  skives,  who  had  broken  their  chains  and 
aspired,  under  the  command  of  their  great  dehverer,  to  revenge 
the  injuries  and  the  disgrace  of  their  cruel  servitude.  About  the 
same  time  he  received  a  more  honorable  re-enforcement  of  Goths 
and  Huns,  whom  Adolphus,  the  brother  of  his  wife,  had  conducted, 
at  his  pressing  invitation,  from  the  banks  of  the  Danube  to  those 
of  the  Tiber,  and  who  had  cut  their  way,  with  some  difficulty  and 
loss,  through  the  superior  numbers  of  the  imperial  troops.  A  vic- 
torious leader,  who  united  the  daring  spirit  of  a  barbarian  with  the 
art  and  discipline  of  a  Roman  general,  was  at  the  head  of  a  hun- 
dred thousand  fighting  men;  and  Italy  pronounced  with  terror 
and  respect  the  formidable  name  of  Alaric. 

At  the  distance  of  fourteen  centuries  we  may  be  satisfied  with 
relating  the  military  exploits  of  the  conquerors  of  Rome,  without 
presuming  to  investigate  the  motives  of  their  political  conduct.  In 
the  midst  of  his  apparent  prosperity,  Alaric  was  conscious  perhaps 
of  some  secret  weakness,  some  internal  defect ;  or  perhaps  the  mod- 
eration which  he  displayed  was  intended  only  to  deceive  and  disarm 
the  easy  credulity  of  the  ministers  of  Honorius.  The  king  of  the 
Goths  repeatedly  declared  that  it  was  his  desire  to  be  considered 
cis  the  friend  of  peace  and  of  the  Romans.  Three  senators,  at  his 
earnest  request,  were  sent,  embassadors  to  the  court  of  Ravenna, 
to  solicit  the  exchange  of  hostages  and  the  conclusion  of  the  treaty; 
and  the  proposals,  which  he  more  clearly  expressed  during  the 
course  of  the  negotiations,  could  only  inspire  a  doubt  of  his  sincer- 
ity as  they  might  seem  inadequate  to  the  state  of  his  fortune.  The 
barbarian  stiU  aspired  to  the  rank  of  master-general  of  the  armies 
of  the  west;  he  stipulated  an  annual  subsidy  of  corn  and  money; 
and  he  chose  the  provinces  of  Dalmatia,  Noricum  and  Venetia  for 
the  seat  of  his  new  kingdom,  which  would  have  commanded  the 
important  communication  between  Italy  and  the  Danube.  If  these 
modest  terms  should  be  rejected,  Alaric  showed  a  disposition  to 
relinquish  his  pecuniary  demands,  and  even  to  content  himself 
with  the  possession  of  Noricum;  an  exhausted  and  impoverished 
country,  perpetually  exposed  to  the  inroads  of  the  barbarians  of 
Germany.     But  the  hopes  of  peace  were  disappointed  by  the  weak 


THE   SACK   OF    ROMb  157 

obstinacy  or  interested  views  of  the  minister  Olympius.     Without 
listening  to  the  sahitary  remonstrances  of  the  senate,  he  dismissed 
their  embassadors  under  the  conduct  of  a  miHtary  escort  too  nu- 
merous for  a  retinue  of  honor  and  too  feeble  for  an  army  of  defense. 
Six  thousand  Dalmatians,  the  flower  of  the  imperial  legions,  were 
ordered  to  marcl    from  Ravenna  to  Rome,  through  an  open  coun- 
try, which  was  occupied  by  the  formidable  myriads  of  the  barba- 
rians.    These  brave  legionaries,  encompassed  and  betrayed,  fell  a 
sacrifice  to  ministerial  folly;  their  general,  Valens,  with  a  hundred 
soldiers,  escaped  from  the  field  of  battle;   and  one  of  the  embassa- 
dors, who  could  no  longer  claim  the  protection  of  the  law  of  nations, 
was  obliged  to  purchase  his  freedom  with  a  ransom  of  thirty  thou- 
sand pieces  of  gold.     Yet  Alaric,  instead  of  resenting  this  act  of 
impotent  hostility,  immediately  renewed  his  proposals  of  peace; 
and   the   second   embassy   of  the   Roman   senate,    which   derived 
weight  and  dignity  from  the  presence  of  Innocent,  bishop  of  the 
city,  was  guarded  from  the  dangers  of  the  road  by  a  detachment 
of  Gothic  soldiers. 

Olympius  might  have  continued  to  insult  the  just  resentment 
of  a  people  who  loudly  accused  him  as  the  author  of  the  public 
calamities;  but  his  power  was  undermined  by  the  secret  intrigues 
of  the  palace.  The  favorite  eunuchs  transferred  the  government 
of  Honorius  and  the  empire  to  Jovius,  the  preetorian  prefect;  an 
unworthy  servant,  who  did  not  atone,  by  the  merit  of  personal 
attachment,  for  the  errors  and  misfortunes  of  his  administration. 
The  exile  or  escape  of  the  guilty  Olympius  reserved  him  for  more 
vicissitudes  of  fortune :  he  experienced  the  adventures  of  an  obscure 
and  wandering  hfe;  he  again  rose  to  power;  he  fell  a  second  time 
into  disgrace;  his  ears  were  cut  off;  he  expired  under  the  lash;  and 
his  ignominious  death  afPorded  a  grateful  spectacle  to  the  friends 
of  Stilicho.  After  the  removal  of  Olympius,  whose  character  was 
deeply  tainted  with  religious  fanaticism,  the  pagans  and  heretics 
were  delivered  from  the  impolitic  proscription  which  excluded  them 
from  the  dignities  of  the  state.  The  brave  Gennerid,  a  soldier  of 
barbarian  origin,  who  still  adhered  to  the  worship  of  his  ancestors, 
had  been  obliged  to  lay  aside  the  military  belt ;  and  though  he  was  re- 
peatedly assured  by  the  emperor  himself  that  laws  were  not  made  for 


158  GREAT    BATTLES    OF  ALL    NATIONS 

persons  of  his  rank  or  merit,  he  refused  to  accept  any  partial  dis- 
pensation, and  persevered  in  honorable  disgrace  till  he  had  extorted 
a  general  act  of  justice  from  the  distress  of  the  Roman  government. 
The  conduct  of  Gennerid,  in  the  important  station  to  which  he  was 
promoted  or  restored,  of  master-general  of  Dalrr_a,tia,  Pannonia, 
Noricum,  and  Rhsetia,  seemed  to  revive  the  discipline  and  spirit 
of  the  republic.  From  a  life  of  idleness  and  want  his  troops  were 
soon  habituated  to  severe  exercise  and  plentiful  subsistence;  and 
his  private  generosity  often  supplied  the  rewards  which  were  denied 
by  the  avarice  or  poverty  of  the  court  of  Ravenna.  The  valor  of 
Gennerid,  formidable  to  the  adjacent  barbarians,  was  the  firmest 
bulwark  of  the  Illyrian  frontier;  and  his  vigilant  care  assisted  the 
empire  with  a  re-enforcement  of  ten  thousand  Huns,  who  arrived 
on  the  confines  of  Italy,  attended  by  such  a  convoy  of  provisions 
and  such  a  numerous  train  of  sheep  and  oxen  as  might  have  been 
sufficient  not  only  for  the  march  of  an  arm}',  but  for  the  settlement 
of  a  colony.  But  the  court  and  councils  of  Honorius  still  remained 
a  scene  of  weakness  and  distraction,  of  corruption  and  anarchy. 
Instigated  by  the  prefect  Jovius,  the  guards  rose  in  furious  mutiny, 
and  demanded  the  heads  of  two  generals  and  of  the  two  principal 
eunuchs.  The  generals,  under  a  perfidious  promise  of  safety,  were 
sent  on  shipboard  and  privately  executed ;  while  the  favor  of  the 
eunuchs  procured  them  a  mild  and  secure  exile  at  Milan  and  Con- 
stantinople. Eusebius  the  eunuch,  and  the  barbarian  Allobich, 
succeeded  to  the  command  of  the  bedchamber  and  of  the  guards ; 
and  the  mutual  jealousy  of  these  subordinate  ministers  was  the 
cause  of  their  mutual  destruction.  By  the  insolent  order  of  the 
count  of  the  domestics,  the  great  chamberlain  was  shamefull}- 
beaten  to  death  with  sticks  before  the  eyes  of  the  astonished 
emperor;  and  the  subsequent  assassination  of  Allobich,  in  the 
midst  of  a  public  procession,  is  the  only  circumstance  of  his  life 
in  which  Honorius  discovered  the  faintest  symptom  of  courage  or 
resentment.  Yet  before  they  fell,  Eusebius  and  Allobich  had 
contributed  their  part  to  the  ruin  of  the  empire,  by  opposing  the 
conclusion  of  a  treaty  which  Jovius,  from  a  selfish,  and  perhajis 
a  criminal,  motive,  had  negotiated  with  Alaric,  in  a  personal 
interview  under  the  walls  of  Rimini.      During    the  absence  of 


THE   SACK   OF    ROME  159 

Jovius  the  emperor  was  persuaded  to  assume  a  lofty  tone  of  in- 
flexible dignity,  such  as  neither  his  situation  nor  his  character  could 
enable  him  to  support;  and  a  letter,  signed  with  the  name  of 
Honorius,  was  immediately  dispatched  to  the  prsetorian  prefect, 
granting  him  a  free  permission  to  dispose  of  the  public  money,  but 
sternly  refusing  to  prostitute  the  military  honors  of  Rome  to  the 
proud  demands  of  a  barbarian.  This  letter  was  imprudently  com- 
municated to  Alaric  himseK;  and  the  Goth,  who  in  the  whole 
transaction  had  behaved  with  temper  and  decency,  expressed,  in 
the  most  outrageous  language,  his  hvely  sense  of  the  insult  so 
wantonly  offered  to  his  person  and  to  his  nation.  The  conference 
of  Rimini  was  hastily  interrupted;  and  the  prefect  Jovius,  on  his 
return  to  Ravenna,  was  compelled  to  adopt,  and  even  to  encourage, 
the  fashionable  opinions  of  the  court.  By  his  advice  and  example 
the  principal  officers  of  the  state  and  army  were  obliged  to  swear 
that,  without  listening,  in  amj  circumstances,  to  any  conditions  of 
peace,  they  would  still  persevere  in  perpetual  and  implacable  war 
against  the  enemy  of  the  repubhc.  This  rash  engagement  opposed 
an  insuperable  bar  to  all  future  negotiation.  The  ministers  of 
Honorius  were  heard  to  declare  that,  if  they  had  only  invoked 
the  name  of  the  Deity,  they  would  consult  the  public  safety  and 
trust  their  souls  to  the  mercy  of  Heaven ;  but  they  had  sworn  by 
the  sacred  head  of  the  emperor  hunself,  they  had  touched  in  sol- 
emn ceremony  that  august  seat  of  majesty  and  wisdom,  and  the 
violation  of  their  oath  would  expose  them  to  the  temporal  penalties 
of  sacrilege  and  rebellion. 

While  the  emperor  and  his  court  enjoyed,  with  sullen  pride,  the 
security  of  the  marshes  and  fortifications  of  Ravenna,  they  aban- 
doned Rome,  almost  without  defense,  to  the  resentment  of  Alaric. 
Yet  such  was  the  moderation  which  he  still  preserved  or  affected 
that,  as  he  moved  with  his  army  along  the  Flaminian  way,  he 
successively  dispatched  the  bishops  of  the  towns  of  Italy  to  reiterate 
his  offers  of  peace  and  to  conjure  the  emperor  that  he  would  save 
the  city  and  its  inhabitants  from  hostile  fire  and  the  sword  of  the 
barbarians.  These  impending  calamities  were  however  averted, 
not  indeed  by  the  wisdom  of  Honorius,  but  by  the  prudence  or 
humanity  of  the  Gothic  king,  who  employed  a  milder  though  not 


i6o  GREAT    BATTLES    OF   ALL   NATIONS 

less  effectual  method  of  conquest.  Instead  of  assaulting  the  capi- 
tal, he  successfully  directed  his  efforts  against  the  Port  of  Ostia, 
one  of  the  boldest  and  most  stupendous  works  of  Roman  magnifi- 
cence. The  accidents  to  which  the  precarious  subsistence  of  the 
city  was  continually  exposed  in  a  winter  navigation  and  an  open 
road  had  suggested  to  the  genius  of  the  first  Caesar  the  useful 
design  which  was  executed  under  the  reign  of  Claudius.  The 
artificial  moles  which  formed  the  narrow  entrance  advanced  far 
into  the  sea  and  firmly  repelled  the  fury  of  the  waves,  while  the 
largest  vessels  securely  rode  at  anchor  within  three  deep  and  capa- 
cious basins,  which  received  the  northern  branch  of  the  Tiber  about 
two  miles  from  the  ancient  colony  of  Ostia.  The  Roman  Port  in- 
sensibly swelled  to  the  size  of  an  episcopal  city,  where  the  corn  of 
Africa  was  deposited  in  spacious  granaries  for  the  use  of  the  capi- 
tal. As  soon  as  Alaric  was  in  possession  of  that  important  place  he 
summoned  the  city  to  surrender  at  discretion;  and  his  demands 
were  enforced  by  the  positive  declaration  that  a  refusal,  or  even  a 
delay,  should  be  instantly  followed  b}"  the  destruction  of  the  maga- 
zines on  which  the  life  of  the  Roman  people  depended.  The  clamors 
of  that  people  and  the  terror  of  famine  svibdued  the  pride  of  the  sen- 
ate ;  they  listened  without  reluctance  to  the  proposal  of  placing  a 
new  emperor  on  the  throne  of  the  unworth}^  Honorius;  and  the 
suffrage  of  the  Gothic  conqueror  bestowed  the  purple  on  Attains, 
prefect  of  the  city.  The  grateful  monarch  immediately  acknowl- 
edged his  protector  as  master- general  of  the  armies  of  the  west; 
Adolphus,  with  the  rank  of  count  of  the  domestics,  obtained  the 
custody  of  the  person  of  Attains;  and  the  two  hostile  nations 
seemed  to  be  united  in  the  closest  bands  of  friendship  and  alliance. 
The  gates  of  the  city  were  thrown  open,  and  the  new  emperor 
of  the  Romans,  encompassed  on  every  side  b}^  the  Gothic  arms,, 
was  conducted,  in  tumultuous  procession,  to  the  palace  of  Augustus 
and  Trajan.  After  he  had  distributed  the  civil  and  military  digni- 
ties among  his  favorites  and  followers.  Attains  convened  an  assem- 
bly of  the  senate ;  before  whom,  in  a  formal  and  florid  speech,  he 
asserted  his  resolution  of  restoring  the  majesty  of  the  republic,  and 
of  uniting  to  the  empire  the  provinces  of  Egypt  and  the  east,  which 
had  once  acknowledged  the  sovereignty  of  Rome.     Such  extrava- 


THE   SACK   OF   ROME  l6l 

gant  promises  inspired  every  reasonable  citizen  with  a  just  con- 
tempt for  the  character  of  an  unwarHke  usurper,  whose  elevation 
was  the  deepest  and  most  ignominious  wound  which  the  republic 
had  yet  sustained  from  the  insolence  of  the  barbarians.     But  the 
populace,  with  their  usual  levity,  applauded  the  change  of  masters. 
The  public  discontent  was  favorable  to  the  rival  of  Honorius ;  and 
the  sectaries,  oppressed  by  his  persecuting  edicts,  expected  some 
degree  of  countenance,  or  at  least  of  toleration,  from  a  prince  who, 
in  his  native  country  of  Ionia,  had  been  educated  in  the  pagan 
superstition,  and  who  had  snice  received  the  sacrament  of  baptism 
from  the  hands  of  an  Arian  bishop.     The  first  days  of  the  reign  of 
Attains  were  fair  and  prosperous.     An  officer  of  confidence  was 
sant  with  an  inconsiderable  body  of  troops  to  secure  the  obedience 
of  Africa ;  the  greatest  part  of  Italy  submitted  to  the  terror  of  the 
Gothic  powers ;  and  though  the  city  of  Bologna  made  a  vigorous 
and  effectual  resistance,  the  people  of  Milan,  dissatisfied  perhaf^ 
with  the  absence  of  Honorius,  accepted,  with  loud  acclamations*, 
the  choice  of  the  Koman  senate.     At  the  head  of  a  formidable 
army,  Alaric  conducted  his  royal  captive  almost  to  the  gates  of 
Ravenna ;  and  a  solemn  embassy  of  the  principal  ministers,  of  Jo- 
vius,  the  praetorian  prefect,  of  Valens,  master  of  the  cavalry  and 
infantry,  of  the  qutestor  Potamius,  and  of  Juhan,  the  first  of  the 
notaries,  was  introduced  with  martial  pomp  into  the  Gothic  camp. 
In  the  name  of  their  sovereign,  they  consented  to  acknowledge  the 
lawful  election  of  his  competitor,  and  to  divide  the  provinces  of 
Italy  and  the  west  between  the  two  emperors.     Their  proposals 
were  rejected  with  disdain ;  and  the  refusal  was  aggravated  by  the 
insulting  clemency  of  Attains,  who  condescended  to  promise  that  if 
Honorius  would  instantly  resign  the  purple  he  should  be  permitted 
to  pass  the  remainder  of  his  life  in  the  peaceful  exile  of  some  remote 
island.     So  desperate,  indeed,  did  the  situation  of  the  son  of  Theo- 
dosius   appear  to  those  who  were  the   best   acquainted  with  his 
strength  and  resources,  that  Jovius  and  Valens,  his  minister  and 
his  general,  betrayed  their  trust,  infamously  deserted  the  sinking 
cause  of  their  benefactor,  and  devoted  their  treacherous  allegiance 
to  the  service  of  his  more  fortunate  rival.     Astonished  by  such  ex- 
amples of  domestic  treason    Honorius  trembled  at  the  approach  of 
F— Vol.  I. 


i62  GREAT   BATTLES   OF   ALL   NATIONS 

every  servant,  at  the  arrival  of  every  messenger.  He  dreaded  the 
secret  enemies  who  might  kirk  in  his  capital,  his  palace,  his  bed- 
chamber ;  and  some  ships  lay  ready  in  the  harbor  of  Ravenna  to 
transport  the  abdicated  monarch  to  the  dominions  of  his  infant 
nephew,  the  emperor  of  the  east. 

But  there  is  a  providence  (such  at  least  was  the  opinion  of  the 
historian  Procopius)  that  watches  over  innocence  and  folly ;  and  the 
pretensions  of  Honorius  to  its  peculiar  care  cannot  reasonably  be  dis- 
puted. At  the  moment  when  his  despair,  incapable  of  any  wise  or 
manly  resolution,  meditated  a  shameful  flight,  a  seasonable  re- 
enforcement  of  four  thousand  veterans  unexpectedly  landed  in  the 
port  of  Ravenna.  To  these  valiant  strangers,  whose  fidelity  had 
not  been  corrupted  by  the  factions  of  the  court,  he  committed  the 
walls  and  gates  of  the  city ;  and  the  slumbers  of  the  emperor  were 
no  longer  disturbed  by  the  apprehension  of  imminent  and  internal 
danger.  The  favorable  intelligence  which  was  received  from 
Africa  suddenly  changed  the  opinions  of  men  and  the  state  of 
public  affairs.  The  troops  and  officers  whom  Attains  had  sent  into 
that  province  were  defeated  and  slain ;  and  the  active  zeal  of  He- 
raclian  maintained  his  own  allegiance  and  that  of  his  people.  The 
faithful  count  of  Africa  transmitted  a  large  sum  of  money,  which 
fixed  the  attachment  of  the  imperial  guards ;  and  his  vigilance,  in 
preventing  the  exportation  of  corn  and  oil,  introduced  famine, 
tumult,  and  discontent  into  the  walls  of  Rome.  The  failure  of  the 
African  expedition  was  the  source  of  mutual  complaint  and  recrimi- 
nation in  the  party  of  Attains;  and  the  mind  of  his  protector  was 
insensibly  alienated  from  the  interest  of  a  prince  who  wanted 
spirit  to  command  or  docihty  to  obey.  The  most  imprudent  meas- 
ures were  adopted,  mthout  the  knowledge  or  against  the  advice  of 
Alaric ;  and  the  obstinate  refusal  of  the  senate  to  allow,  in  the  em- 
barkation, the  mixture  even  of  five  hundred  Goths,  betrayed  a  sus- 
picious and  distrustful  temper,  which,  in  their  situation,  was  neither 
generous  nor  prudent.  The  resentment  of  the  Gothic  king  was  ex- 
asperated by  the  malicious  arts  of  Jovius,  who  had  been  raised  to 
the  rank  of  patrician,  and  who  afterward  excused  his  double  per- 
fidy by  declaring,  without  a  blush,  that  he  had  only  seemed  to 
abandon  the  service  of  Honorius,  more  effectually  to  ruin  the  cause 


THE  SACK   OF   ROME  '6? 

of  the  usurper.     In  a  large  plaiu  near  Eimiui,  -^  -  the  presence 
of    an  innumerable   multitude   of    Romans   and  barbanans,   the 
wretched  Attains  was  publicly  despoiled  of  the  diadem  and  p..rple 
and  those  ensigns  of  royalty  were  sent  by  Alaric,  as  the  pledge  of 
pie  and  frie:dship,  to  the  son  of  Theodosius.     The  officers  who 
returned  to  their  duty  were  reinstated  in  the.r  employments,  and 
even  the  merit  of  a  tardy  repentance  was  graciously  allowed;  but 
he  degraded  emperor  of  the  Romans,  desirous  of  life  and  msens. 
lie  of  disgrace,  implored  the  permission  of  foUowing  the  Gothc 
camp  in  the  train  of  a  haughty  and  capricious  barbarian 

The  degradation  of  Attains  removed  the  only  real  obstacle  to  the 
conclusion  of  the  peace;  and  Alaric  advanced  within  three  mikso 
Ravenna,  to  press  the  irresolution  of  the  imperial  mmisters,  whose 
fnsolence  soon  returned  with  the  return  of  ^"^^^^^^^^^^'^'Xe 
tion  wa.  kindled  by  the  report  that  a  rival  chief  tain-tha  Sams,  the 
pelnal  enemy  of  Adolphus  and  the  herediUry  foe  of  the  hous^ 
Balti-had  been  received  into  the  palace.     At  the  head  of  tbiee 
hundred  followers  that  fearless  barbarian  immediately  sallied  from 
tlL  gates  of  Ravenna,  surprised  and  cut  in  pieces  a  considerable 
body  of  Goths,  re-entered  the  city  in  triumph,  and  was  permitted 
^Lilt  his  ^iversary  by  the  voice  of  a  herald,  who  puWic  y  d. 
elared  that  the  guilt  of  Alaric  had  forever  excluded  him  f lom  the 
friendship  and  alliance  of  the  emperor.     The  crime  and  folly  of  the 
Irt  of  Ravenna  was  expiated,  a  third  time,  by  the  calamities  o 
ZL     The   king  of  the  Goths,  who  no  longer  dissembled  h  s 
appet  te  for  plunder  and  revenge,  appeared  in  arms  under  the  wa  Is 
of  the  capital;  and  the  trembling  senate,  without  any  hopes  o    re 
Uef  nrepLd  by  a  desperate  resistaoice,  to  delay  the  rum  of  their 
Inn  r  But  they  were  unable  to  guard  against  the  secret  con- 
p-ral  of  their  slaves  and  domestics;  who,  either  from  birth  or 
ZZ,  were  attached  to  the  cause  of  the  enemy.     At  the  hour^ 
iiiidnight  the  Salarian  gate  was  silently  opened    -jl  ^^   ' '  ^^_ 
tants  were  awakened  by  the  tremendous  sound  of  the  Goth  c  trum 
pet     E  even  hundred  and  sixty-three  years  after  the  foundation  ot 
Rome  the  imperial  city,  which  had  subdued  and  civihzed  so  con- 
arable  a  part  of  mankind,  was  delivered  to  the  hceutious  fury  of 
the  tribes  of  Germany  and  Scythia. 


104  GREAT    BATTLES    OF    ALL    NATIONS 

The  proclamation  of  Alaric,  when  he  forced  his  entrance  into  a 
vanquished  city,  discovered,  however,  some  regard  for  the  laws  of 
humanity  and  religion.  He  encoviraged  his  troops  boldly  to  seize 
the  rewards  of  valor  and  to  enrich  themselves  with  the  spoils  of  a 
wealthy  and  effeminate  people ;  but  he  exhorted  them,  at  the  same 
time,  to  spare  the  lives  of  the  unresisting  citizens,  and  to  respect  the 
churches  of  the  apostles  St.  Peter  and  St.  Paul  as  holy  and  inviola- 
ble sanctuaries.  Amid  the  horrors  of  a  nocturnal  tumult,  several 
of  the  Christian  Goths  displayed  the  fervor  of  a  recent  conversion ; 
and  some  instances  of  their  uncommon  piety  and  moderation  are 
related,  and  perhaps  adorned,  by  the  zeal  of  ecclesiastical  writers. 
While  the  barbarians  roamed  through  the  city  in  quest  of  prey,  the 
humble  dwelling  of  an  aged  virgin,  who  had  devoted  her  life  to  the 
service  of  the  altar,  was  forced  open  by  one  of  the  powerful  Goths. 
He  immediately  demanded,  though  in  civil  language,  all  the  gold 
and  silver  in  her  possession ;  and  was  astonished  at  the  readiness 
with  which  she  conducted  him  to  a  splendid  hoard  of  massy  plate, 
of  the  richest  materials  and  the  most  curious  workmanship.  The 
barbarian  viewed  with  wonder  and  delight  this  valuable  acquisition, 
till  he  was  interrupted  by  a  serious  admonition,  addressed  to  him  in 
the  following  words:  "These,"  said  she,  "are  the  consecrated  ves- 
sels belonging  to  St.  Peter;  if  you  presume  to  touch  them,  the  sacri- 
legious deed  will  remain  on  your  conscience.  For  my  part,  I  dare 
not  ke^  what  I  am  unable  to  defend."  The  Gothic  captain,  struck 
with  reverential  awe,  dispatched  a  messenger  to  inform  the  king  of 
the  treasure  which  he  had  discovered ;  and  received  a  peremptory 
order  from  Alaric,  that  all  the  consecrated  plate  and  ornaments 
should  be  transported,  without  damage  or  delay,  to  the  church  of 
the  apostle.  From  the  extremity,  perhaps,  of  the  Quirinal  hill  to 
the  distant  quarter  of  the  Vatican  a  numerous  detachment  of  Goths, 
marching  in  order  of  battle  through  the  principal  streets,  protected 
with  glittering  arms  the  long  train  of  their  devout  companions, 
who  bore  aloft  on  their  heads  the  sacred  vessels  of  gold  and  sil- 
ver; and  the  martial  shouts  of  the  barbarians  were  mingled  with 
the  sound  of  religious  psalmody.  From  all  the  adjacent  houses  a 
crowd  of  Christians  hastened  to  join  this  edifying  procession ;  and 
a  multitude  of  fugitives,  without  distinction  of  age,  or  rank,  or 


THE   SACK   OF   ROME  165 

even  of  sect,  had  the  good  fortune  to  escape  to  the  secure  and  hos- 
pitable sanctuary  of  the  Vatican.  The  learned  work  concerning 
the  City  of  God  was  professedly  composed  by  St.  Augustin,  to 
justify  the  ways  of  Providence  in  the  destruction  of  the  Roman 
greatness.  He  celebrates,  with  peculiar  satisfaction,  this  memor- 
able triumph  of  Christ ;  and  insults  his  adversaries  by  challenging 
them  to  produce  some  similar  example  of  a  town  taken  by  storm 
in  which  the  fabulous  gods  of  antiquity'  had  been  able  to  protect 
either  themselves  or  their  deluded  votaries. 

In  the  sack  of  Rome  some  rare  and  extraordinary  examples  of 
barbarian  virtue  have  been  deservedly  applauded.  But  the  holy 
precincts  of  the  Vatican  and  the  apostolic  churches  could  receive  a 
very  small  proportion  of  the  Roman  people ;  many  thousand  war- 
riors, more  especially  of  the  Huns,  who  served  under  the  standard 
of  Alaric,  were  strangers  to  the  name,  or  at  least  to  the  faith,  of 
Christ;  and  we  may  suspect,  without  any  breach  of  charity  or 
candor,  that  in  the  hour  of  savage  license,  when  every  passion  was 
inflamed  and  every  restraint  was  removed,  the  precepts  of  the  gos- 
pel seldom  influenced  the  behavior  of  the  Gothic  Christians.  The 
writers  the  best  disposed  to  exaggerate  their  clemency  have  freely 
confessed  that  a  cruel  slaughter  was  made  of  the  Romans,  and  that 
the  streets  of  the  city  were  filled  with  dead  bodies,  which  remained 
without  burial  during  the  general  consternation.  The  despair  of  the 
citizens  was  sometimes  converted  into  fury ;  and  whenever  the  bar- 
barians were  provoked  by  opposition  they  extended  the  promiscuous 
massacre  to  the  feeble,  the  innocent,  and  the  helpless.  The  private 
revenge  of  forty  thousand  slaves  was  exercised  without  pit}^  or  re- 
morse ;  and  the  ignominious  lashes  which  they  had  f ormerl}-  received 
were  washed  away  in  the  blood  of  the  guilty  or  obnoxious  families. 
The  matrons  and  virgins  of  Rome  were  exposed  to  injuries  more 
dreadful  in  the  apprehension  of  chastitj"  than  death  itself;  and  the 
ecclesiastical  historian  has  selected  an  example  of  female  virtue  for 
the  admiration  of  future  ages.  A  Roman  lady  of  singular  beauty 
and  orthodox  faitli  had  excited  the  impatient  desires  of  a  young 
Goth,  who,  according  to  the  sagacious  remark  of  Sozomen,  was 
attached  to  the  Arian  heresy.  Exasperated  by  her  obstinate  resist- 
ance, he   drew  his  sword  and,  with  the  anger  of  a  lover,  slightly 


i66  GREAT   BATTLES    OF   ALL   NATIONS 

wounded  her  neck.  The  bleeding  heroine  still  continued  to  brave 
his  resentment  and  to  repel  his  love,  till  the  ravisher  desisted  from 
his  unavailing  efforts,  respectfully  conducted  her  to  the  sanctuary 
of  the  Vatican,  and  gave  six  pieces  of  gold  to  the  guards  of  the 
church  on  condition  that  they  should  restore  her  inviolate  to  the 
arms  of  her  husband.  Such  instances  of  courage  and  generosity 
were  not  extremely  common.  The  brutal  soldiers  satisfied  their 
sensual  appetites  without  consulting  either  the  inchnation  or  the 
duties  of  their  female  captives;  and  a  nice  question  of  casuistry 
was  seriously  agitated,  Whether  those  tender  victims  who  had 
inflexibly  refused  their  consent  to  the  violation  which  they  sus- 
tained had  lost  by  their  misfortune  the  glorious  crown  of  vhginity? 
There  were  other  losses,  indeed,  of  a  more  substantial  kind  and 
more  general  concern.  It  cannot  be  presumed  that  all  the  barba- 
rians were  at  all  times  capable  of  perpetrating  such  amorous  out- 
rages; and  the  want  of  youth,  or  beauty,  or  chastity  protected  the 
greatest  part  of  the  Roman  women  from  the  danger  of  a  rape.  But 
avarice  is  an  insatiate  and  universal  passion,  since  the  enjoyment 
of  almost  every  object  that  can  afford  pleasure  to  the  different 
tastes  and  tempers  of  mankind  may  be  procured  by  the  possession 
of  wealth.  In  the  pillage  of  Rome  a  just  preference  was  given  to 
gold  and  jeweAs,  which  contain  the  greatest  value  in  the  smallest 
compass  and  weight;  but  after  these  portable  riches  had  been 
removed  by  the  more  dihgent  robbers,  the  palaces  of  Rome  were 
rudely  stripped  of  their  splendid  and  costly  furniture.  The  side- 
boards of  massy  plate,  and  the  variegated  wardrobes  of  silk  and 
purple,  were  irregularly  piled  in  the  wagons  that  always  followed 
the  march  of  a  Gothic  armj".  The  most  exquisite  works  of  art  were 
roughly  handled  or  wantonly  destroyed ;  many  a  statue  was  melted 
for  the  sake  of  the  precious  materials;  and  many  a  vase,  in  the 
division  of  the  spoil,  was  shivered  into  fragments  by  the  stroke  of 
a  battle-ax.  The  acquisition  of  riches  served  only  to  stimulate  the 
avarice  of  the  rapacious  barbarians,  who  proceeded  by  threats,  by 
blows,  and  by  tortures  to  force  from  their  prisoners  the  confession 
of  hidden  treasure.  Visible  splendor  and  expense  were  alleged  as 
the  proof  of  a  plentiful  fortune ;  the  appearance  of  poverty  was 
imputed  to  a  parsimonious  disposition ;  and  the  obstinacy  of  some 


THE    SACK   OF    ROME  167 

misers,  who  endured  the  most  cruel  torments  before  they  would 
discover  the  secret  object  of  their  affection,  was  fatal  to  many 
unhappy  Avretches,  who  expired  under  the  lash  for  refusing  to  re- 
veal their  imaginary  treasures.  The  edifices  of  Rome,  though  the 
damage  has  been  mucli  exaggerated,  received  some  injury  from  the 
violence  of  the  Goths.  At  their  entrance  through  the  Salarian  gate 
they  fired  the  adjacent  houses  to  guide  their  march  and  to  distract 
the  attention  of  the  citizens;  the  flames,  which  encountered  no 
obstacle  in  the  disorder  of  the  night,  consumed  many  private  and 
pubhc  buildings,  and  the  ruins  of  the  palace  of  Sallust  remained  in 
the  age  of  Justinian  a  stately  monument  of  the  Gothic  conflagra- 
tion. Yet  a  contemporary  historian  has  observed  that  fire  could 
scarcely  consume  the  enormous  beams  of  solid  brass,  and  that  the 
strength  of  man  was  insufficient  to  subvert  the  foundations  of 
ancient  structures.  Some  truth  may  possibly  be  concealed  in  his 
devout  assertion  that  the  wrath  of  Heaven  supplied  the  imperfec- 
tions of  hostile  rage,  and  that  the  proud  Forum  of  Rome,  decorated 
with  the  statues  of  so  many  gods  and  heroes,  was  leveled  in  the 
dust  by  the  stroke  of  lightning. 

Whatever  might  be  the  numbers  of  equestrian  or  plebeian  rank 
who  perished  in  the  massacre  of  Rome,  it  is  confidently  affirmed 
that  only  one  senator  lost  his  fife  by  the  sword  of  the  enemy.  But 
it  was  not  easy  to  compute  the  multitudes  who,  from  an  honorable 
station  and  a  prosperous  fortune,  were  suddenlj^  reduced  to  the 
miserable  condition  of  captives  and  exiles.  As  the  barbarians  had 
more  occasion  for  money  than  for  slaves,  they  fixed  at  a  moderate 
price  the  redemption  of  their  indigent  prisoners ;  and  the  ransom 
was  often  paid  by  the  benevolence  of  their  friends  or  the  charity 
of  strangers.  The  captives  who  were  regularly  sold,  either  in  open 
market  or  by  private  contract,  ^s^ould  have  legally  regained  their 
native  freedom,  which  it  was  impossible  for  a  citizen  to  lose  or  to 
alienate.  But  as  it  was  soon  discovered  that  the  vindication  of 
their  liberty  would  endanger  their  lives,  and  that  the  Goths,  unless 
they  were  tempted  to  sell,  might  be  provoked  to  murder  their  use- 
less prisoners,  the  civil  jurisprudence  had  been  already  qualified  by, 
a  wise  regulation  that  they  should  bo  obliged  to  serve  the  moderate 
term  of  five  years,  till  they  had  discharged  by  their  labor  the  price 


i68  GREAT   BATTLES    OF   ALL    NATIONS 

of  their  redemption.  The  nations  who  invaded  the  Roman  empire 
had  driven  before  them  into  Italy  whole  troops  of  hungry  and 
affrighted  provincials,  less  apprehensive  of  servitude  than  of 
famine.  The  calamities  of  Rome  and  Italy  dispersed  the  inhab- 
itants to  the  most  lonely,  the  most  secure,  the  most  distant  places 
of  refuge.  While  the  Gothic  cavalry  spread  terror  and  desolation 
along  the  seacoast  of  Campania  and  Tuscany,  the  little  island  of 
Igilium,  separated  by  a  narrow  channel  from  the  Argentarian 
promontory,  repulsed  or  eluded  their  hostile  attempts;  and  at  so 
small  a  distance  from  Rome  great  numbers  of  citizens  were  securely 
concealed  in  the  thick  woods  of  that  sequestered  spot.  The  ample 
matrimonies  which  many  senatorian  families  possessed  in  Africa 
invited  them,  if  they  had  time  and  prudence  to  escape  from  the 
ruin  of  their  country,  to  embrace  the  shelter  of  that  hospitable 
province.  The  most  illustrious  of  these  fugitives  was  the  noble 
and  pious  Proba,  the  widow  of  the  prefect  Petronius.  After  the 
death  of  her  husband,  the  most  powerful  subject  of  Rome,  she 
had  remained  at  the  head  of  the  Anician  family,  and  successively 
supplied,  from  her  private  fortune,  the  expense  of  the  consulships 
of  her  three  sons.  When  the  city  was  besieged  and  taken  by  the 
Goths,  Proba  supported,  with  Christian  resignation,  the  loss  of 
immense  riches;  embarked  in  a  small  vessel,  from  whence  she 
beheld  at  sea  the  flames  of  her  burning  palace,  and  tied  with  her 
daughter  Lseta,  and  her  granddaughter,  the  celebrated  virgin 
Demetrias,  to  the  coast  of  Africa.  The  benevolent  profusion  with 
which  the  matron  distributed  the  fruits  or  the  price  of  her  estates 
contributed  to  alleviate  the  misfortunes  of  exile  and  captivity.  But 
even  the  family  of  Proba  herself  was  not  exempt  from  the  rapacious 
oppression  of  Count  Heraclian,  who  basely  sold,  in  matrimonial 
prostitution,  the  noblest  maidens  of  Rome  to  the  lust  or  avarice 
of  the  Syrian  merchants.  The  Italian  fugitives  were  dispersed 
through  the  provinces,  along  the  coast  of  Egypt  and  Asia,  as  far 
as  Constantinople  and  Jerusalem ;  and  the  village  of  Bethlem,  the 
solitary  residence  of  St.  Jerome  and  his  female  converts,  was 
crowded  with  illustrious  beggars  of  either  sex  and  every  age,  who 
excited  the  public  compassion  by  the  remembrance  of  their  past 
fortune.     This  awful  catastrophe  of  Rome  filled  the  astoniahed  em- 


THE   SACK    OF    ROME  169 

pire  with  grief  and  terror.  So-  interesting  a  contrast  of  greatness 
and  ruin  disposed  the  fond  credulity  of  the  people  to  deplore,  and 
even  to  exaggerate,  the  afflictions  of  the  queen  of  cities.  The 
clergy,  who  applied  to  recent  events  the  lofty  metaphors  of  Orien- 
tal prophecj',  were  sometimes  tempted  to  confound  the  destruction 
of  the  capital  and  the  dissolution  of  the  globe. 

There  exists  in  human  nature  a  strong  propensity  to  depreciate 
the  advantages  and  to  magnify  the  evils  of  the  present  times.  Yet, 
when  the  first  emotions  had  subsided,  and  a  fair  estimate  was  made 
of  the  real  damage,  the  more  learned  and  judicious  contemporaries 
were  forced  to  confess  that  infant  Rome  had  formerly  received 
more  essential  injury  from  the  Gauls  than  she  had  now  sustained 
from  the  Goths  in  her  decliniiig  age.  The  experience  of  eleven 
centuries  has  enabled  posterity  to  produce  a  much  more  singular 
parallel;  and  to  affirm  with  confidence  that  the  ravages  of  the 
barbarians,  whom  Alaric  had  led  from  the  banks  of  the  Danube, 
were  less  destructive  than  the  hostilities  exercised  by  the  troops  of 
Charles  V.,  a  Catholic  prince,  who  styled  himself  emperor  of  the 
Romans.  The  Goths  evacuated  the  city  at  the  end  of  six  days,  but 
Rome  remained  above  nine  months  in  the  possession  of  the  imperial- 
ists; and  every  hour  was  stained  by  some  atrocious  act  of  cruelty, 
lust,  and  rapine.  The  authority  of  Alaric  preserved  some  order 
and  moderation  among  the  ferocious  multitude  which  acknowl- 
edged him  for  their  leader  and  king ;  but  the  constable  of  Bourbon 
had  gloriously  fallen  in  the  attack  of  the  walls,  and  the  death  of 
the  general  removed  every  restraint  of  discipline  from  an  army 
which  consisted  of  three  independent  nations,  the  Italians,  the 
Spaniards,  and  the  Germans.  In  the  beginning  of  the  sixteenth 
century  the  manners  of  Italy  exhibited  a  remarkable  scene  of  the 
depravity  of  mankind.  They  united  the  sanguinary  crimes  that 
prevail  in  an  unsettled  state  of  society  with  the  polished  vices 
which  spring-  from  the  abuse  of  art  and  luxury;  and  the  loose 
adventurers,  who  had  violated  every  prejudice  of  patriotism  and 
superstition  to  assault  the  palace  of  the  Roman  pontiff,  must 
deserve  to  be  considered  as  the  most  profligate  of  the  Italians.  At 
the  same  era  the  Spaniards  were  the  terror  both  of  the  Old  and 
New  World ;  but  their  high-spirited  valor  was  disgraced  by  gloomy 


170       GREAT  BATTLES  OF  ALL  NATIONS 

pride,  rapacious  avarice,  and  unrelenting  cruelty.  Indefatigable 
in  the  pursuit  of  fame  and  riches,  they  had  improved,  by  repeated 
practice,  the  most  exquisite  and  effectual  methods  of  tori;uring  their 
prisoners ;  many  of  the  Castilians  who  pillaged  Rome  were  familiars 
of  the  holy  inquisition;  and  some  volunteers,  perhaps,  Avere  lately 
returned  from  the  conquest  of  Mexico.  The  Germans  were  less 
corrupt  than  the  Italians,  less  cruel  than  the  Spaniards ;  and  the 
rustic  or  even  savage  aspect  of  those  Tramontane  warriors  often 
disguised  a  simple  and  merciful  disposition.  But  they  had  im- 
bibed, in  the  first  fervor  of  the  Reformation,  the  spirit  as  well  as 
the  principles  of  Luther.  It  was  their  favorite  amusement  to  insult 
or  destroy  the  consecrated  objects  of  Catholic  superstition;  they 
indulged,  without  pity  or  remorse,  a  devout  hatred  against  the 
clergy  of  every  denomination  and  degree,  who  form  so  considerable 
a  part  of  the  inhabitants  of  modern  Rome ;  and  their  fanatic  zeal 
might  aspire  to  subvert  the  throne  of  Antichrist,  to  purify,  with 
blood  and  fire,  the  abominations  of  the  spiritual  Babj'lon. 

The  retreat  of  the  victorious  Goths,  who  evacuated  Rome  on 
the  sixth  day,  might  be  the  result  of  prudence;  but  it  was  not 
surely  the  effect  of  fear.  At  the  head  of  an  army  encumbered 
with  rich  and  weighty  spoils,  their  intrepid  leader  advanced  along 
the  Appian  way  into  the  southern  provinces  of  Italy,  destroying 
whatever  dared  to  oppose  his  passage,  and  contenting  himself  with 
the  plunder  of  the  unresisting  country.  The  fate  of  Capua,  the 
proud  and  luxurious  metropohs  of  Campania,  and  which  was  re- 
spected even  in  its  decay  as  the  eighth  city  of  the  empire,  is  buried 
in  oblivion;  while  the  adjacent  town  of  Nola  has  been  illustrated 
on  this  occasion,  by  the  sanctity  of  Paulinus,  who  was  successively 
a  consul,  a  monk,  and  a  bishop.  At  the  age  of  forty  he  renounced 
the  enjoyment  of  wealth  and  honor,  of  society  and  literature,  to 
embrace  a  life  of  solitude  and  penance ;  and  the  loud  applause  of 
the  clergy  encouraged  him  to  despise  the  reproaches  of  his  worldly 
friends,  who  ascribed  this  desperate  act  to  some  disorder  of  the 
mind  or  body.  An  early  and  passionate  attachment  determined 
him  to  fix  his  humble  dwelling  in  one  of  the  suburbs  of  Nola,  near 
the  miraculous  tomb  of  St.  Felix,  which  the  public  devotion  had 
already  surrounded  with  five  large  and  populous  churches.     The 


THE    SACK    OF    ROME  171 

remains  of  his  fortune  and  of  his  understanding  were  dedicated  to 
the  service  of  the  glorious  martyr;  whose  praise,  on  the  day  of  his 
festival,  Paulinus  never  failed  to  celebrate  by  a  solemn  hymn,  and 
in  whose  name  he  erected  a  sixth  church,  of  superior  elegance  and 
beauty,  which  was  decorated  with  many  curious  pictures  from  the 
history  of  the  Old  and  New  Testament.  Such  assiduous  zeal 
secured  the  favor  of  the  saint,  or  at  least  of  the  people;  and, 
after  fifteen  years'  retirement,  the  Roman  consul  was  compelled 
to  accept  the  bishopric  of  Nola  a  few  months  before  the  city  was 
invested  by  the  Goths.  During  the  siege  some  religious  persons 
were  satisfied  that  they  had  seen,  either  in  dreams  or  visions,  the 
divine  form  of  their  tutelar  patron;  3'et  it  soon  appeared,  by  the 
event,  that  Felix  wanted  power  or  inclination  to  preserve  the  flock 
of  wkich  he  had  formerly  been  the  shepherd.  Nola  was  not  saved 
from  the  general  devastation,  and  the  captive  bishop  was  protected 
only  by  the  general  opinion  of  his  innocence  and  poverty. 

Above  four  years  elapsed  from  the  successful  invasion  of  Italy 
by  Alaric  to  the  voluntary  retreat  of  the  Goths,  under  the  con- 
duct of  his  successor,  Adolphus ;  and  during  the  whole  time  they 
reigned  without  control  over  a  country  which,  in  the  opinion  of 
the  ancients,  had  united  all  the  various  excellences  of  nature  and 
art.  The  prosperity,  indeed,  which  Italy  had  attained  in  the  auspi- 
cious age  of  the  Antonines  had  gradually  declined  with  the  decline 
of  the  empire.  The  fruits  of  a  long  peace  perished  under  the  rude 
grasp  of  the  barbarians;  and  they  themselves  were  incapable  of 
tasting  the  more  elegant  refinements  of  luxury  which  had  been 
prepared  for  the  use  of  the  soft  and  polished  Italians.  Each  sol- 
dier, however,  claimed  an  ample  portion  of  the  substantial  plenty : 
the  corn  and  cattle,  oil  and  wine,  that  was  daily  collected  and 
consumed  in  the  Gothic  camp ;  and  the  principal  warriors  insulted 
the  villas  and  gardens  once  inhabited  by  Lucullus  and  Cicero,  along 
the  beauteous  coast  of  Campania.  Their  trembling  captives,  the 
sons  and  daughters  of  Roman  senators,  presented,  in  goblets  of 
gold  and  gems,  large  draughts  of  Falernian  wine  to  the  haughty 
victors,  who  stretched  their  huge  limbs  under  the  shade  of  plane- 
trees,  artificiallj^  disposed  to  exclude  the  scorching  rays  and  to 
admit  the  genial  warmth  of  the  sun.     These  dehghts  were  en- 


172  GREAT    BATTLES    OF    ALL    NATIONS 

hanced  by  the  memory  of  past  hardships :  the  comparison  of  their 
native  soil,  the  bleak  and  barren  hills  of  Scythia,  and  the  frozen 
banks  of  the  Elbe  and  Danube,  added  new  charms  to  the  felicity 
of  the  Italian  climate. 

"Whether  fame,  or  conquest,  or  riches  were  the  object  of  Alaric, 
he  pursued  that  object  with  an  indefatigable  ardor  which  could 
neither  be  quelled  by  adversity  nor  satiated  by  success.  No  sooner 
had  he  reached  the  extreme  land  of  Italy  than  he  was  attracted  by 
the  neighboring  prospect  of  a  fertile  and  peaceful  island.  Yet  even 
the  possession  of  Sicily  he  considered  only  as  an  intermediate  step 
to  the  important  expedition  which  he  already  meditated  against  the 
continent  of  Africa.  The  straits  of  Rhegium  and  Messina  are 
twelve  miles  in  length,  and,  in  the  narrowest  passage,  about  one 
mile  and  a  half  broad ;  and  the  fabulous  monsters  of  the  deep,  the 
rocks  of  Scylla  and  the  whirlpool  of  Chary bdis,  could  terrify  none 
but  the  most  timid  and  unskillful  mariners.  Yet  as  soon  as  the 
first  division  of  the  Goths  had  embarked  a  sudden  tempest  arose, 
which  sunk  or  scattered  many  of  the  transports ;  their  courage  was 
daunted  by  the  terrors  of  a  new  element;  and  the  whole  design 
was  defeated  by  the  premature  death  of  Alaric,  which  fixed,  after 
a  short  illness,  the  fatal  term  of  his  conquests*  The  ferocious  char- 
acter of  the  Imrbarians  was  displayed  in  the  funeral  of  a  hero 
whose  valor  and  fortune  they  celebrated  with  mournful  applause. 
By  the  labor  of  a  captive  multitude  they  forcibly  diverted  the 
course  of  the  Busentinus,  a  small  river  that  washes  the  walls  of 
Consentia.  The  royal  sepulcher,  adorned  with  the  splendid  toils 
and  trophies  of  Rome,  was  constructed  in  the  vacant  bed;  the 
waters  were  then  restored  to  their  natural  channel,  and  the  secret 
spot,  where  the  remains  of  Alaric  had  been  deposited,  was  forever 
concealed  by  the  inhuman  massacre  of  the  prisoners  who  had  been 
employed  to  execute  the  work.  [Gibbon. 


CHAPTER    VIII 
ATTILA,   SURNAMED   THE    SCOURGE   OF   GOD 

HIS   DEFEx^T   AT  CHALONS  — THE  RISE   AND  SUBSIDENCE 
OF   THE   HUNS 

A.  D.   451 

ABROAD  expanse  of  plains,  the  Campi  Catalaunici  of  the 
ancients,  spreads  far  and  wide  around  "^^he  city  of  Chalons, 
in  the  northeast  of  France.  The  long  rows  of  poplars, 
through  which  the  River  Marne  winds  its  way,  and  a  few  thinly- 
scattered  villages,  are  almost  the  only  objects  that  vary  the  monot- 
onous aspect  of  the  greater  part  of  this  region.  But  about  five 
miles  from  Chalons,  near  the  little  hamlets  of  Chape  and  Cuperly, 
the  ground  is  indented  and  heaped  up  in  ranges  of  grassy  mounds 
and  trenches,  which  attest  the  work  of  man's  hands  in  ages  past, 
and  which,  to  the  practiced  eye,  demonstrate  that  this  quiet  spot 
has  once  been  the  fortified  position  of  a  huge  military  host. 

Local  tradition  gives  to  these  ancient  earthworks  the  name  of 
Attila's  Camp.  Nor  is  there  any  reason  to  question  the  correctness 
of  the  title,  or  to  doubt  that  behind  these  very  ramparts  it  was  that, 
fourteen  hundred  years  ago,  the  most  powerful  heathen  king  that 
ever  ruled  hi  Europe  mustered  the  remnants  of  his  vast  army, 
which  had  striven  on  these  plains  against  the  Christian  soldiery 
of  Toulouse  and  Rome.  Here  it  was  that  Attila  prepared  to  resist 
to  the  death  his  victors  in  the  field ;  and  here  he  heaped  up  the 
treasures  of  his  camp  in  one  vast  pile,  which  was  to  be  his  funeral 
pyre  should  his  camp  be  stormed.  It  was  here  that  the  Gothic  and 
Italian  forces  watched,  but  dared  not  assail  their  enemy  in  his 
despair,  after  that  great  and  terrible  day  of  battle  when 

(173) 


174  GREAT   BATTLES   OF   ALL   NATIONS 

"The  sound 
Of  conflict  was  o'erpast,  the  shout  of  all 
"Whom  earth  could  send  from  her  remotest  bounds, 
Heathen  or  faithful;  from  thy  hundred  mouths, 
That  feed  the  Caspian  with  Riphean  snows, 
Huge  Volga !   from  famed  Hypanis,  which  once 
Cradled  the  Hun ;  from  all  the  countless  realms 
Between  Imaus  and  that  utmost  strand 
Where  columns  of  Herculean  rock  confront 
The  blown  Atlantic ;  Roman,  Goth,  and  Hun, 
And  Scythian  strength  of  chivalry,  that  tread 
The  cold  Codanian  shore,  or  what  far  lands 
Inhospitable  drink  Cimmerian  floods, 
Franks,  Saxons,  Suevic,  and  Sarmatian  chiefs, 
And  who  from  green  Armorica  or  Spain 
Flocked  to  the  work  of  death." 

The  victory  which  the  Roman  general,  Aetius,  -with  his  Gothic 
allies,  had  then  gained  over  the  Huns,  was  the  last  victory  of 
imperial  Rome.  But  among  the  long  Fasti  of  her  triumphs,  few 
can  be  found  that,  for  their  importance  and  ultimate  benefit  to 
mankind,  are  comparable  with  this  expiring  efl;ort  of  her  arms.  It 
did  not,  indeed,  open  to  her  any  new  career  of  conquest — it  did 
not  consolidate  the  relics  of  her  power — it  did  not  turn  the  rapid 
ebb  of  her  fortunes.  The  mission  of  imperial  Rome  was,  in  truth, 
already  accomplished.  She  had  received  and  transmitted  through 
her  once  ample  dominion  the  civilization  of  Greece.  She  had  broken 
up  the  barriers  of  narrow  nationalities  among  the  various  states 
and  tribes  that  dwelt  around  the  coasts  of  the  Mediterranean.  She 
had  fused  these  and  many  other  races  into  one  organized  empire, 
bound  together  by  a  community  of  laws,  of  government  and  insti- 
tutions. Under  the  shelter  of  her  full  power  the  True  Faith  had 
arisen  in  the  earth,  and  during  the  years  of  her  decline  it  had  been 
nourished  to  maturity,  it  had  overspread  all  the  provinces  that  ever 
obeyed  her  sway.  For  no  beneficial  purpose  to  mankind  could  the 
dominion  of  the  seven-hilled  city  have  been  restored  or  prolonged. 
But  it  was  all-important  to  mankind  what  nations  should  divide 
among  them  Rome's  rich  inheritance  of  empire.  Whether  the 
Germanic  and  Gothic  warriors  should  form  states  and  kingdoms 
out  of  the  fragments  of  her  dominions,  and  become  the  free  mem- 
bers of  the  commonwealth  of  Christian  Europe ;  or  whether  pagan 
savages,  from  the  wilds  of  Central  Asia,  should  crush  the  relics 


ATTILA,  THE   SCOURGE    OF   GOD  175 

of  classic  civilization  and  the  earlj*  institutions  of  the  Christianized 
Germans  in  one  hopeless  chaos  of  barbaric  conquest.  The  Chris- 
tian Visigoths  of  King  Theodoric  fought  and  triumphed  at  Chalons 
side  by  side  with  the  legions  of  Aetius.  Their  joint  victory  over 
the  Hunnish  host  not  only  rescued  for  a  time  from  destruction  the 
old  age  of  Rome,  but  preserved  for  centuries  of  power  and  glory 
the  Germanic  element  in  the  civilization  of  modern  Europe. 

In  order  to  estimate  the  full  importance  to  mankind  of  the  bat- 
tle of  Chalons,  we  must  keep  steadily  in  mind  who  and  what  the 
Germans  were,  and  the  important  distinctions  between  them  and 
the  numerous  other  races  that  assailed  the  Roman  empire;  and  it 
is  to  be  understood  that  the  Gothic  and  Scandinavian  nations  are 
included  in  the  German  race.  Now,  "in  two  remarkable  traits, 
the  Germans  differed  from  the  Sarmatic  as  well  as  from  the  Slavic 
nations,  and,  indeed,  from  all  those  other  races  to  whom  the  Greeks 
and  Romans  gave  the  designation  of  barbarians.  I  allude  to  their 
personal  freedom  and  regard  for  the  rights  of  men ;  secondly,  to 
the  respect  paid  by  them  to  the  female  sex,  and  the  chastity  for 
which  the  latter  were  celebrated  among  the  people  of  the  North. 
These  were  the  foundations  of  that  probity  of  character,  self- 
respect,  and  purity  of  manners  which  may  be  traced  among  the 
Germans  and  Goths  even  during  pagan  times,  and  which,  when 
their  sentiments  were  enlightened  by  Christianity,  brought  out 
those  splendid  traits  of  character  which  distinguish  the  age  of 
chivalry  and  romance."  What  the  intermixture  of  the  German 
stock  with  the  classic,  at  the  fall  of  the  "Western  empire,  has  done 
for  mankind,  may  be  best  felt  by  watching,  with  Arnold,  over  how 
large  a  portion  of  the  earth  the  influence  of  the  German  element  is 
now  extended. 

"It  affects,  more  or  less,  the  whole  west  of  Europe,  from  the 
head  of  the  Gulf  of  Bothnia  to  the  most  southern  promontory  of 
Sicily,  from  the  Oder  and  the  Adriatic  to  the  Hebrides  and  to  Lis- 
bon. It  is  true  that  the  language  spoken  over  a  large  portion  of 
this  space  is  not  predominantly  German;  but  even  in  France,  and 
Italy,  and  Spain,  the  influence  of  the  Franks,  Burgundians,  Visi- 
goths, Ostrogoths,  and  Lombards,  while  it  has  colored  even  the 
language,  has  in  blood   and  institutions  left  its  mark  legibly  and 


176  GREAT    BATTLES    OF  ALL    NATIONS 

indelibly.  Germany,  the  Low  Countries,  S^vitzerland  for  the  most 
part,  Denmark,  Norway,  and  Sweden,  and  our  own  islands  are  all 
in  language,  in  blood,  and  in  institutions,  German  most  decidedly. 
But  all  South  America  is  peopled  with  Spaniards  and  Portuguese ; 
all  North  America,  and  all  AustraHa,  with  Englishmen.  I  say 
nothing  of  the  prospects  and  influence  of  the  German  race  in  Africa 
and  in  India :  it  is  enough  to  say  that  half  of  Europe,  and  all 
America  and  Australia,  are  German,  more  or  less  completely,  in 
race,  in  language,  or  in  institutions,  or  in  all." 

By  the  middle  of  the  fifth  century  Germanic  nations  had  settled 
themselves  in  many  of  the  fairest  r-egions  of  the  Roman  empire,  had 
imposed  iAieiT  yoke  on  the  provincials,  and  had  undergone,  to  a 
considerable  extent,  that  moral  conquest  which  the  arts  and  refine- 
ments of  the  vanquished  in  arms  have  so  often  achieved  over  the 
rough  victor.  The  Visigoths  held  the  north  of  Spain,  and  Gaul 
south  of  the  Loire.  Franks,  Alemanni,  Alans,  and  Burgundians 
had  established  themselves  in  other  Gallic  provinces,  and  the  Suevi 
were  masters  of  a  large  southern  portion  of  the  Spanish  peninsula. 
A  kfeig  of  the  Vandals  reigned  in  North  Africa,  and  the  Ostrogoths 
had  firmly  planted  themselves  in  the  provinces  north  of  Italy.  Of 
these  powers  and  principalities  that  of  the  Visigoths,  under  their 
king  Theodoric,  son  of  Alaric,  was  by  far  the  first  in  power  and 
in  civilization. 

The  pressure  of  the  Huns  upon  Europe  had  first  been  felt  in 
the  fourth  century  of  our  era.  They  had  long  been  formidable 
to  the  Chinese  empire,  but  the  ascendency  in  arms  which  another 
nomadic  tribe  of  Central  Asia,  the  Sienpi,  gained  over  them,  drove 
the  Huns  from  their  Chinese  conquest  westward;  and  this  move- 
ment once  being  communicated  to  the  whole  chain  of  barbaric 
nations  that  dwelt  northward  of  the  Black  Sea  and  the  Roman 
empire,  tribe  after  tribe  of  savage  warriors  broke  in  upon  the  bar- 
riers of  civilized  Europe.  "Velut  unda  supervenit  undam."  The 
Huns  crossed  the  Tanais  into  Europe  in  375,  and  rapidly  reduced 
to  subjection  the  Alans,  the  Ostrogoths,  and  other  tribes  that  were 
then  dwelling  along  the  course  of  the  Daiuibe.  The  armies  of 
the  Roman  emperor  that  tried  to  check  their  progress  were  cut  to 
pieces  by  them,  and  Pannonia  and  other  provinces  south  of  the 


ATTILA.  THE    SCOURGE    OF    GOD  177 

Danube  were  speedily  occupied  by  the  victorious  cavalry  of  these 
new  invaders.  Not  merely  the  degenerate  Romans,  but  the  bold 
and  hardy  warriors  of  Germany  and  Scandinavia,  were  appalled  at 
the  number,  the  ferocitj',  the  ghastly  appearance  and  the  lightning- 
like rapidity  of  the  Huns.  Strange  and  loathsome  legends  were 
coined  and  credited,  which  attributed  their  origin  to  the  union  of 

"Secret,  black,  and  midnight  hags," 

with  the  evil  spirits  of  the  wilderness. 

Tribe  after  tribe,  and  city  after  city,  fell  before  them.  Then 
came  a  pause  in  their  career  of  conquest  in  southwestern  Europe, 
caused  probably  by  dissensions  among  their  chiefs,  and  also  by 
their  arms  being  employed  in  attacks  upon  the  Scandinavian 
nations.  But  when  Attila  (or  Atzel,  as  he  is  called  in  the  Hun- 
garian language)  became  their  ruler,  the  torrent  of  their  arms  was 
directed  with  augmented  terrors  upon  the  west  and  the  south,  and 
their  myriads  marched  beneath  the  guidance  of  one  master-mind 
to  the  overthrow  both  of  the  new  and  the  old  powers  of  the  earth. 

Recent  events  have  thrown  such  a  strong  interest  over  every- 
thing connected  with  the  Hungarian  name  that  even  the  terrible 
renown  of  Attila  now  impresses  us  the  more  vividly  through  our 
sympathizing  admiration  of  the  exploits  of  those  who  claim  to  be 
descended  from  his  warriors,  and  "ambitiously  insert  the  name  of 
Attila  among  their  native  kings."  The  authenticity  of  this  martial 
genealogy  is  denied  by  some  writers  and  questioned  bv  more.  But 
it  is  at  least  certain  that  the  Magyars  of  Arpad,  who  are  the  imme- 
diate ancestors  of  the  bulk  of  the  modern  Hungarians,  and  who 
conquered  the  country  which  bears  the  name  of  Hungary  in  A.D. 
889,  were  of  the  saine  stock  of  mankind  as  were  the  Huns  of  Attila, 
even  if  they  did  not  belong  to  the  same  subdivision  of  that  stock. 
Nor  is  there  anj'-  improbability  in  the  tradition  that  after  Attila's 
death  many  of  his  warriors  remained  in  Hungary,  and  that  their 
descendants  afterward  joined  the  Huns  of  Arpad  in  their  career  of 
conquest.  It  is  certain  that  Attila  made  Hungary'  the  seat  of  his 
empire.  It  seems  also  susceptible  of  clear  proof  that  the  territory 
was  then  called  Hungvar  and  Attila's  soldiers  Hungvari.  Both 
the  Huns  of  Attila  and  those  of  Arpad  came  from  the  family  of 


1/8  GREAT    BATTLES    OF    ALL   NATIONS 

nomadic  nations  whose  primitive  regions  were  those  vast  wilder- 
aesses  of  High  Asia  which  are  included  between  the  Altaic  and 
the  Himalayan  mountain  chains.  The  inroads  of  these  tribes  upon 
the  lower  regions  of  Asia  and  into  Europe  have  caused  many  of 
the  most  remarkable  revolutions  in  the  history  of  the  world.  There 
is  every  reason  to  beUeve  that  swarms  of  these  nations  made  their 
way  into  distant  parts  of  the  earth,  at  periods  long  before  the  date 
of  the  Scythian  invasion  of  Asia,  which  is  the  earliest  inroad  of 
the  nomadic  race  that  history  records.  The  first,  as  far  as  we  can 
conjecture,  in  respect  to  the  time  of  their  descent,  were  the  Finnish 
and  Ugrian  tribes,  who  appear  to  have  come  down  from  the  Altaic 
border  of  High  Asia  toward  the  northwest,  in  which  direction  they 
advanced  to  the  Urahan  Mountains.  There  they  established  them- 
selves ;  and  that  mountain  chain,  with  its  valleys  and  pasture  lands, 
became  to  them  a  new  country,  whence  they  sent  out  colonies  on 
every  side;  but  the  Ugrian  colony,  which,  under  Arpad,  occupied 
Hungary,  and  became  the  ancestors  of  the  bulk  of  the  present 
Hungarian*  nation,  did  not  quit  their  settlements  on  the  Uralian 
Mountains  till  a  very  late  period,  and  not  until  four  centuries  after 
the  time  when  Attila  led  from  the  primary  seats  of  the  nomadic 
races  in  High  Asia  the  host  with  which  he  advanced  into  the  heart 
of  France.  That  host  was  Turkish,  but  closely  allied  in  origin, 
language,  and  habits  with  the  Finno-Ugrian  settlers  on  the  Ural. 
Attila's  fame  has  not  come  down  to  us  through  the  partial  and 
suspicious  medium  of  chroniclers  and  poets  of  his  own  race.  It  is 
not  from  Hunnish  authorities  that  we  learn  the  extent  of  his  might : 
it  is  from  his  enemies,  from  the  Hterature  and  the  legends  of  the 
nations  whom  he  afflicted  with  his  arms,  that  we  draw  the  unques- 
tionable evidence  of  his  greatness.  Besides  the  express  narratives 
of  Byzantine,  Latin,  and  Gothic  writers,  we  have  the  strongest 
proof  of  the  stern  reahty  of  Attila's  conquests  in  the  extent  to 
which  he  and  his  Huns  have  been  the  themes  of  the  earHest  Ger- 
man and  Scandinavian  lays.  Wild  as  many  of  those  legends  are, 
they  bear  concurrent  and  certain  testimony  to  the  awe  with  which 
the  memory  of  Attila  was  regarded  by  the  bold  warriors  who  com- 
posed and  delighted  in  them.  Attila's  exploits,  and  the  wonders 
of  hib  linearthly  steed  and  magic  sword,  repeatedly  occur  iu  the 


ATTILA,  THE    SCOURGE    OF   GOD  179 

Sagas  of  Norway  and  Iceland;  and  the  celebrated  Niebelungen 
Lied,  the  most  ancient  of  Germanic  poetry,  is  full  of  them.  There 
Etsel,  or  Attila,  is  described  as  the  wearer  of  twelve  mighty  crowns, 
and  as  promising  to  his  bride  the  lands  of  thirty  kings,  whom  his 
irresistible  sword  had  subdued.  He  is,  in  fact,  the  hero  of  the 
latter  part  of  this  remarkable  poem ;  and  it  is  at  his  capital  city, 
EtselenburglL,  which  evidently  corresponds  to  the  modern  Buda, 
that  much  of  its  action  takes  place. 

When  we  turn  from  the  legendary  to  the  historic  Attila,  we  see 
clearly  that  he  was  not  one  of  the  vulgar  herd  of  barbaric  conquer- 
ors. Consummate  mihtary  skill  may  be  traced  in  his  campaigns ; 
and  he  relied  far  less  on  the  brute  force  of  araiies  for  the  aggran- 
dizement of  his  empire  than  on  the  unbounded  influence  over  the 
jiffections  of  friends  and  the  fears  of  foes  which  his  genius  enabled 
him  to  acquire.  Austerelj^  sober  in  his  private  life — severely  just 
on  the  judgment-seat — conspicuous  among  a  nation  of  Avarriors  for 
hardihood,  strength,  and  skill  in  every  martial  exercise — grave  and 
deliberate  in  counsel,  but  rapid  and  remorseless  in  execution,  he 
gave  safety  and  security  to  all  who  were  under  his  dominion,  while 
he  waged  a  warfare  of  extermination  against  all  who  opposed  or 
sought  to  escape  from  it.  He  watched  the  national  passions,  the 
prejudices,  the  creeds,  and  the  superstitions  of  the  varied  nations 
over  which  he  ruled,  and  of  those  which  he  sought  to  reduce  be- 
nea;th  his  sway :  all  these  feelings  he  had  the  skill  to  turn  to  his 
own  account.  His  o^vn  warriors  believed  him  to  be  the  inspired 
favorite  of  their  deities,  and  followed  him  with  fanatic  zeal;  his 
enemies  looked  on  him  as  the  pre-appointed  minister  of  Heaven's 
wrath  agamst  themselves;  and  though  they  believed  not  in  his 
creed,  their  own  made  them  tremble  before  him. 

In  one  of  his  early  campaigns  he  appeared  before  his  troops 
with  an  ancient  iron  sword  in  his  grasp,  which  he  told  them  was 
the  god  of  war  whom  their  ancestors  had  worshiped.  It  is  certain 
that  the  nomadic  tribes  of  Northern  Asia,  whom  Herodotus  de- 
scribed under  the  name  of  Scythians,  from  the  earliest  times  wor- 
shiped as  their  god  a  bare  sword.  That  sword-god  was  supposed, 
ill  Attila's  time,  to  have  disappeared  from  earth;  but  the  Hunnish 
king  now  claimed  to  have  received  it  by  special  revelation.     It  was 


i8o  GREAT    BATTLES    OF    ALL    NATIONS 

said  that  a  herdsman,  who  was  tracking  in  the  desert  a  wounded 
heifer  by  the  drops  of  blood,  found  the  mysterious  sword  standing 
fixed  in  the  ground,  as  if  it  had  darted  down  from  heaven.  The 
herdsman  bore  it  to  Attila,  who  thenceforth  was  beUeved  by  the 
Huns  to  wield  the  Spirit  of  Death  in  battle,  and  their  seers  prophe- 
sied that  that  sword  was  to  destroy  the  world.  A  Roman,  who 
was  on  an  embassy  to  the  Hunnish  camp,  recorded  in  his  memoirs 
Attila's  acquisition  of  this  supernatural  weapon,  and  the  immense 
influence  over  the  minds  of  the  barbaric  tribes  which  its  possession 
gave  him.  In  the  title  which  he  assumed  we  shall  see  the  skill 
with  which  he  availed  himself  of  the  legends  and  creeds  of  other 
nations  as  well  as  of  his  own.  He  designated  himself  "Attila, 
Descendant  of  the  Great  Nimrod.  Nurtured  in  Engaddi.  By  the 
Grace  of  God,  King  of  the  Huns,  the  Goths,  the  Danes,  and  the 
Medes.     The  Dread  of  the  World." 

Herbert  states  that  Attila  is  represented  on  an  old  medallion 
with  a  Teraphim,  or  a  head,  on  his  breast ;  and  the  same  writer 
adds,  "We  know,  from  the  'Hamartigenea'  of  Prudentius,  that 
Nimrod,  with  a  snaky-haired  head,  was  the  object  of  adoration  of 
the  heretical  followers  of  Marcion;  and  the  same  head  was  the 
palladium  set  up  by  Antiochus  Epijihanes  over  the  gates  of  An- 
tioch,  though  it  has  been  called  the  visage  of  Charon.  The  memory 
of  Nimrod  was  certamly  regarded  with  mystic  veneration  by  many ; 
and  by  asserting  himself  to  be  the  heir  of  that  mighty  hunter  before 
the  Lord,  he  vindicated  to  himself  at  least  the  whole  Babylonian 
kingdom. 

"The  singular  assertion  in  his  style,  that  he  was  nurtured  in 
Engaddi,  where  he  certainly  had  never  been,  ^vill  be  more  easily 
understood  on  reference  to  the  twelfth  chapter  of  the  Book  of  Reve- 
lations, concerning  the  woman  clothed  wdth  the  sun,  who  was  to 
bring  forth  in  the  wilderness — 'where  she  hath  a  place  prepared  of 
God' — a  man-child,  who  was  to  contend  with  the  dragon  having 
seven  heads  and  ten  horns,  and  rule  all  nations  with  a  rod  of  iron. 
This  prophecy  was  at  that  time  understood  universally  by  the  sin- 
cere Christians  to  refer  to  the  bii-th  of  Constantine,  who  was  to 
overwhelm  the  paganism  of  the  city  on  the  seven  hilLs,  and  it  is 
still  so  explained;   but  it  is  evident  that  the  heathens  must  have 


ATTILA,  THE    SCOURGE   OF    GOD  i8l 

looked  on  it  in  a  different  light,  and  have  regarded  it  as  a  foretell- 
ing of  the  birth  of  that  Great  One  who  should  master  the  temporal 
power  of  Rome.  The  assertion,  therefore,  that  he  was  nurtured 
in  Engaddi,  is  his  claim  to  be  looked  upon  as  that  man-child 
who  was  to  be  brought  forth  in  a  place  prepared  of  God  in  the 
wilderness.  Engaddi  means  a  place  of  palms  and  vines  in 
the  desert;  it  was  hard  by  Zoar,  the  city  of  refuge,  which 
was  saved  in  the  Vale  of  Siddim,  or  Demons,  when  the  rest 
were  dostroj^ed  b}-  fire  and  brimstone  from  the  Lord  in  heaven, 
and  might,  therefore,  be  especially  called  a  place  prepared  of 
God  in  the  wilderness." 

It  is  obvious  enough  wh}^  he  styled  himself  "By  the  Grace  of 
God,  King  of  the  Huns  and  Goths";  and  it  seems  far  from  diffi- 
cult to  see  why  he  added  the  names  of  the  Medes  and  the  Danes. 
His  armies  had  been  engaged  in  warfare  against  the  Persian  king- 
dom of  the  Sassanidas,  and  it  is  certain  that  he  meditated  the  inva- 
sion and  overthrow  of  the  Medo-Persian  power.  Probably  some 
of  the  northern  provinces  of  that  kingdom  had  been  compelled  to 
pay  him  tribute ;  and  this  would  account  for  his  styling  himself 
King  of  the  Medes,  they  being  his  remotest  subjects  to  the  south. 
From  a  similar  cause,  he  may  have  called  himself  King  of  the 
Danes,  as  his  power  may  well  have  extended  northward  as  far  as 
the  nearest  of  the  Scandinavian  nations,  and  this  mention  of  Medes 
and  Danes  as  his  subjects  would  serve  at  once  to  indicate  the  vast 
extent  of  his  dominion. 

The  immense  territory  north  of  the  Danube  and  Black  Sea  and 
eastward  of  Caucasus,  over  which  Attila  ruled,  first  in  conjunction 
with  his  brother  Bleda,  and  afterward  alone,  cannot  be  very  accu- 
rately defined,  but  it  must  have  comprised  within  it,  besides  the 
Huns,  many  nations  of  Slavic,  Gothic,  Teutonic,  and  Finnish 
origin.  South  also  of  the  Danube  the  country,  from  the  River  Sau 
as  far  as  Novi  in  Thrace,  was  a  Hunnish  province.  Such  was  the 
empire  of  the  Huns  in  A.D.  445;  a  memorable  year,  in  which 
Attila  founded  Buda  on  the  Danube  as  his  capital  city  and  ridded 
himself  of  his  brother  by  a  crime  which  seems  to  have  been 
prompted  not  only  by  selfish  ambition,  but  also  by  a  desire  of 
turning  to  his  purpose  the  legends  and  forebodings  which   then 


i82  GREAT   BATTLES    OF   ALL   NATIONS 

were  universally  spread  throughout  the  Roman  empire,  and  must 
have  been  well  known  to  the  watchful  and  ruthless  Hun. 

The  year  445  of  our  era  completed  the  twelfth  century  from  the 
foundation  of  Rome,  according  to  the  best  chronologers.  It  had 
always  been  believed  among  the  Romans  that  the  twelve  vultures, 
which  were  said  to  have  appeared  to  Romulus  when  he  founded  the 
citj'-,  signified  the  time  during  which  the  Roman  power  should 
endure.  The  twelve  vultures  denoted  twelve  centuries.  This 
interpretation  of  the  vision  of  the  birds  of  destiny  was  current 
among  learned  Romans  even  when  there  were  yet  many  of  the 
twelve  centuries  to  run  and  while  the  imperial  city  was  at  the 
zenith  of  its  power.  But  as  the  allotted  time  drew  nearer  and 
nearer  to  its  conclusion,  and  as  Rome  grew  weaker  and  weaker 
beneath  the  blows  of  barbaric  invaders,  the  terrible  omen  was  more 
and  more  talked  and  thought  of ;  and  in  Attila's  time,  men  watched 
for  the  momentary  extinction  of  the  Roman  state  with  the  last  beat 
of  the  last  vulture's  wing. 

Moreover,  among  the  numercus  legends  connected  with  the 
foundation  of  the  city  and  th'^  fratricidal  death  of  Remus  there 
was  one  most  terrible  one,  which  told  that  Romulus  did  not  put 
his  brother  to  death  in  accident  or  in  hasty  quarrel,  but  that 

"He  slew  his  gallant  twin 
With  inexpiable  sin," 

deliberately  and  in  compliance  ^vith  the  warnings  of  supernatural 
powers.  The  shedding  of  a  brother's  blood  was  believed  to  have 
been  the  price  at  which  the  founder  of  Rome  had  purchased  from 
destiny  her  twelve  centuries  of  existence. 

"We  may  imagine,  therefore,  AAath  what  terror  in  this,  the  twelve 
hundredth  year  after  the  foundation  of  Rome,  the  inhabitants  of 
the  Roman  empire  must  have  heard  the  tidings  that  the  royal 
brethren,  Attila  and  Bleda,  had  founded  a  new  capital  on  the 
Danube,  which  was  designed  to  rule  over  the  ancient  capital  on  the 
Tiber ;  and  that  Attila,  like  Romulus,  had  consecrated  the  founda- 
tions of  his  new  city  by  murdering  his  brother;  so  that  for  the  new 
cycle  of  centuries  then  about  to  commence  dominion  had  been 
bought  from  the  gloomy  spirits  of  destiny  in  favor  of  the  Hun  by  a 


ATTILA,  THE    SCOURGE    OF    GOD  183 

sacrifice  of  equal  awe  and  value  with  that  which  had  formerly 
obtained  it  for  the  Roman. 

It  is  to  be  remembered  that  not  only  the  pagans  but  also  the 
Christians  of  that  age  knew  and  believed  in  these  legends  and 
omens,  however  they  might  differ  as  to  the  nature  of  the  super- 
human agency  by  which  such  mysteries  had  been  made  known  to 
mankind.  And  we  may  observe  with  Herbert,  a  modern  learned 
dignitary  of  our  church,  how  remarkably  this  augury  was  fulfilled ; 
for  "if  to  the  twelve  centuries  denoted  by  the  twelve  vultures  that 
appeared  to  Romulus  we  add  for  the  six  birds  that  appeared  to 
Remus  six  lustra,  or  periods  of  five  years  each,  bj-  which  the 
Romans  were  wont  to  number  their  time,  it  brings  us  precisely  to 
the  year  476,  in  which  the  Roman  empire  was  finally  extinguished 
by  Odoacer." 

An  attempt  to  assassinate  Attila,  made,  or  supposed  to  have 
been  made,  at  the  instigation  of  Theodoric  the  younger,  the  em- 
peror of  Constantinople,  drew  the  Hunnish  armies,  in  445,  upon 
the  Eastern  empire,  and  delayed  for  a  time  the  destined  blow 
against  Rome.  Probably  a  more  important  cause  of  delay  was  the 
revolt  of  some  of  the  Hunnish  tribes  to  the  north  of  the  Black  Sea 
against  Attila,  w^hich  broke  out  about  this  period,  and  is  cursorily' 
mentioned  by  the  Byzantine  writers.  Attila  quelled  this  revolt, 
and  having  thus  consoHdated  his  power,  and  having  punished  the 
presumption  of  the  Eastern  Roman  emperor  by  fearful  ravages 
of  his  fairest  pro-\ances,  Attila,  in  450,  prepared  to  set  his  vast 
forces  in  motion  for  the  conquest  of  Western  Europe.  He  sought 
unsuccessfully  by  diplomatic  intrigues  to  detach  the  king  of  the 
Visigoths  from  his  alliance  with  Rome,  and  he  resolved  first 
to  crush  the  power  of  Theodoric  and  then  to  advance  with 
overwhelming  power  to  trample  out  the  last  sparks  of  the 
doomed   Roman   empire. 

A  strange  invitation  from  a  Roman  princess  gave  him  a  pretext 
for  the  war,  and  threw  an  air  of  chivalric  enterprise  over  his  inva- 
sion. Honoria,  sister  of  Valentinian  III.,  the  emperor  of  the  "West, 
had  sent  to  Attila  to  offer  him  her  hand  and  her  supposed  right  to 
share  in  the  imperial  power.  This  had  been  discovered  by  the 
Romans,    and    Honoria    had    been  forthwith   closely  imprisoned. 


i84  GREAT    BATTLES    OF   ALL    NATIONS 

Attila  now  pretended  to  take  up  arms  in  behalf  of  his  self -promised 
bride,  and  proclaimed  that  he  was  about  to  march  to  Rome  to 
redress  Honoria's  wrongs.  Ambition  and  spite  against  her  brother 
must  have  been  the  sole  motives  that  led  the  lady  to  woo  the  royal 
Hun;  for  Attila's  face  and  person  had  all  the  natural  ugliness  of 
his  race,  and  the  description  given  of  him  by  a  Byzantine  embas- 
sador must  have  been  well  known  in  the  imperial  courts.  Herbert 
has  well  versified  the  portrait  drawn  by  Priscus  of  the  great  enemy 
of  both  Byzantium  and  Rome : 

"Terrific  was  his  semblance,  in  no  mold 
Of  beautiful  proportion  cast ;  his  limbs 
Nothing  exalted,  but  with  sinews  braced 
Of  Chalybsean  temper,  agile,  lithe, 
And  swifter  than  the  roe;  his  ample  chest 
Was  overbrow'd  by  a  gigantic  head, 
With  eyes  keen,  deeply  sunk,  and  small,  that  gleam'd 
Strangely  in  wrath  as  though  some  spirit  unclean 
Within  that  corporal  tenement  install'd 
Look'd  from  its  windows,  but  with  temper' d  fire 
Beam'd  mildly  on  the  unresisting.     Thin 
His  beard  and  hoary;  his  flat  nostrils  crown 'd 
A  cicatrized,  swart  visage;  but,  withal. 
That  questionable  shape  such  glory  wore 
That  mortals  quail' d  beneath  him." 

Two  chiefs  of  the  Franks,  who  were  then  settled  on  the  Lower 
Rhine,  were  at  this  period  engaged  in  a  feud  with  each  other,  and 
while  one  of  them  appealed  to  the  Romans  for  aid  the  other  in- 
voked the  assistance  and  protection  of  the  Huns.  Attila  thus 
obtained  an  ally  whose  co-operation  secured  for  him  the  passage  of 
the  Rhine,  and  it  was  this  circumstance  which  caused  him  to  take 
a  northward  route  from  Hungary'  for  his  attack  upon  Gaul.  The 
muster  of  the  Hunnish  hosts  was  swollen  by  warriors  of  every  tribe 
that  they  had  subjugated ;  nor  is  there  any  reason  to  suspect  the  old 
chroniclers  of  willful  exaggeration  in  estimating  Attila's  army  at 
seven  hundred  thousand  strong.  Having  crossed  the  Rhine,  prob- 
ably a  little  below  Coblentz,  he  defeated  the  king  of  the  Burgundi- 
ans,  who  endeavored  to  bar  his  progress.  He  then  divided  his  vast 
forces  into  two  armies,  one  of  which  marched  northwest  upon  Ton- 
gres  and  Arras  and  other  cities  of  that  part  of  France,  while  the 
main  body,  under  Attila  himself,  advanced  up  the  Moselle  and  de- 


ATTILA,  THE   SCOURGE    OF    GOD  185 

stroyed  Besancon,  and  other  towns  in  the  country  of  the  Burgundi- 
ans.  One  of  the  latest  and  best  biographers  of  Attila  well  observes 
that,  "having  thus  conquered  the  eastern  part  of  France,  Attila 
I)repared  for  an  invasion  of  the  West  Gothic  territories  beyond  the 
L(iire.  He  marched  upon  Orleans,  where  he  intended  to  force  the 
passage  of  that  river,  and  only  a  little  attention  is  requisite  to 
enable  us  to  perceive  that  he  proceeded  on  a  systematic  plan :  he 
had  his  right  wing  on  the  north  for  the  protection  of  his  Frank 
allies,  his  left  wing  on  the  south  for  the  purpose  of  preventing  the 
Burgundians  from  ralljang  and  of  menacing  the  passes  of  the  Alps 
from  Italy,  and  he  led  his  center  toward  the  chief  object  of  the  cam- 
paign— the  conquest  of  Orleans  and  an  eas}*  passage  into  the  West 
Gothic  dominion.  The  whole  plan  is  very  like  that  of  the  allied 
powers  in  1814,  with  this  difference,  that  their  left  wing  entered 
France  through  the  defiles  of  the  Jura  in  the  direction  of  Lyons, 
and  that  the  military  object  of  the  campaign  was  the  capture  of 
Paris." 

It  was  not  until  the  year  451  that  the  Huns  commenced  the  siege 
of  Orleans,  and  during  their  campaign  in  Eastern  Gaul  the  Roman 
general  Aetius  had  strenuously  exerted  himself  in  collecting  and 
organizing  such  an  army  as  might,  when  united  to  the  soldiery  of 
the  Visigoths,  be  fit  to  face  the  Huns  in  the  field.  He  enlisted 
every  subject  of  the  Roman  empire  whom  patriotism,  courage,  or 
compulsion  could  collect  beneath  the  standards,  and  round  these 
troops,  which  assumed  the  once  proud  title  of  the  legions  of  Rome, 
he  arrayed  the  large  forces  of  barbaric  auxiliaries  whom  pay,  per- 
suasion, or  the  general  hate  and  dread  of  the  Huns  brought  to  the 
camp  of  the  last  of  the  Roman  generals.  King  Theodoric  exerted 
himself  with  equal  energy.  Orleans  resisted  her  besiegers  bravely 
as  in  after  times.  The  passage  of  the  Loire  was  skillfully  defended 
against  the  Huns,  and  Aetius  and  Theodoric,  after  much  maneuver- 
ing and  difficulty,  effected  a  junction  of  their  armies  to  the  south  of 
that  important  nver. 

On  the  advance  of  the  allies  upon  Orleans,  Attila  instantly 
))roke  up  the  siege  of  that  city  and  retreated  toward  the  Marne. 
He  did  not  choose  to  risk  a  decisive  battle  with  only  the  central 
corps  of  his  army  against  the  combined  power  of  his  enemies,  and 


i86  GREAT    BATTLES    OF  ALL    NATIONS 

he  therefore  fell  back  upon  his  base  of  operations,  calling  in  his 
wings  from  Airas  and  Besancon,  and  concentrating  the  whole  of 
the  Hunnish  forces  on  the  vast  plains  of  Chalons-sur-Marne.  A 
glance  at  a  map  will  show  how  scientifically  this  place  was  chosen 
by  the  Hunnish  general  as  the  point  for  his  scattered  forces  to  con- 
verge upon ;  and  the  nature  of  the  ground  was  eminently  favorable 
for  the  operations  of  cavalry,  the  arm  in  which  Attila's  strength 
peculiarly  lay. 

It  was  during  the  retreat  from  Orleans  that  a  Christian  hermit 
is  reported  to  have  approached  the  Hunnish  king,  and  said  to  him, 
"Thou  art  the  Scourge  of  God  for  the  chastisement  of  the  Chris- 
tians." Attila  instantly  assumed  this  new  title  of  terror,  which 
thenceforth  became  the  appellation  by  which  he  was  most  widely 
and  most  fearfully  known. 

The  confederate  armies  of  Romans  and  Visigoths  at  last  met 
their  great  adversary  face  to  face  on  the  ample  battleground  of  the 
Chalons  plains.  Aetius  commanded  on  the  right  of  the  allies. 
King  Theodoric  on  the  left.  Sangipan,  king  of  the  Alans,  whose 
fidelity  was  suspected,  was  placed  purposely  in  the  center,  and  in 
the  very  front  of  the  battle.  Attila  commanded  his  center  in  per- 
son, at  the  head  of  his  own  countrymen,  while  the  Ostrogoths,  the 
Gepidse,  and  the  other  subject  allies  of  the  Hims,  were  drawn  up  on 
the  wings.  Some  maneuvering  appears  to  have  occurred  before  the 
engagement,  in  which  Aetius  had  th  advantage,  inasmuch  as  he 
succeeded  in  occupying  a  sloping  hill  which  commanded  the  left 
flank  of  the  Huns.  Attila  saw  the  importance  of  the  position  taken 
by  Aetius  on  the  high  ground,  and  commenced  the  battle  by  a  furi- 
ous attack  on  this  part  of  the  Roman  line,  in  which  he  seems  to 
have  detached  some  of  his  best  troops  from  his  center  to  aid  his 
left.  The  Romans,  having  the  advantage  of  the  ground,  repulsed 
the  Huns,  and  while  the  allies  gained  this  advantage  on  their  right, 
their  left,  under  King  Theodoric,  assailed  the  Ostrogoths,  who 
formed  the  right  of  Attila's  army.  The  gallant  king  was  himself 
struck  down  by  a  javelin,  as  he  rode  onward  at  the  head  of  his 
men;  and  his  own  cavalry,  charging  over  him,  trampled  him  to 
death  in  the  confusion.  But  the  Visigoths,  infuriated,  not  dis- 
pirited, by  their  monarch's   fall,  routed   the   enemies  opposed   to 


ATTILA,  THE   SCOURGE    OF    GOD  187 

them,  and  then  wheeled  upon  the  flank  of  the  Hunnish  center, 
which  had  been  engaged  in  a  sanguinary  and  indecisive  contest 
with  the  Alans. 

In  this  peril  Attila  made  liis  center  fall  back  upon  his  camp; 
and  when  the  shelter  of  its  intrenchments  and  wagons  had  once 
been  gained,  the  Hunnish  archers  repulsed,  without  difficulty,  the 
charges  of  the  vengeful  Gothic  cavalry.  Aetius  had  not  pressed 
the  advantage  which  he  gained  on  his  side  of  the  field,  and  when 
night  fell  over  the  wild  scene  of  havoc,  Attila's  left  was  still  unde- 
feated, but  his  right  had  been  routed  and  his  center  forced  back 
upon  his  camp. 

Expecting  an  assault  on  the  morrow,  Attila  stationed  his  best 
archers  in  front  of  the  cars  and  w^agons,  which  were  drawn  up  as 
a  fortification  along  his  lines,  and  made  every  prej)aration  for  a 
desperate  resistance.  But  the  "Scourge  of  God"  resolved  that  no 
man  should  boast  of  the  honor  of  having  either  captured  or  slain 
him,  and  he  caused  to  be  raised  in  the  center  of  his  encampment 
a  huge  pyramid  of  the  wooden  saddles  of  his  cavalry :  round  it  he 
heaped  the  spoils  and  the  wealth  that  he  had  won;  on  it  he  sta- 
tioned his  wives  who  had  accompanied  him  in  the  campaign;  and 
on  the  summit  Attila  placed  himself,  ready  to  perish  in  the  flames, 
and  balk  the  victorious  foe  of  their  choicest  booty,  should  they  suc- 
ceed in  storming  his  defenses. 

But  when  the  morning  broke  and  revealed  the  extent  of  the 
carnage  with  Vv^hich  the  plains  were  heaped  for  miles,  the  success- 
ful allies  saw  also  and  respected  the  resolute  attitude  of  their  an- 
tagonist. Neither  were  any  measures  taken  to  blockade  him  in.  his 
camp,  and  so  to  extort  by  famine  that  submission  which  it  was  too 
plainly  perilous  to  enforce  with  the  sword.  Attila  was  allowed  to 
march  back  the  remnants  of  his  army  without  molestation,  and 
even  with  the  semblance  of  success. 

It  is  probable  that  the  crafty  Aetius  was  unwilling  to  be  too 
victorious.  He  dreaded  the  glory  which  his  allies  the  Visigoths 
had  acquired,  and  feared  that  Rome  might  fhid  a  second  Alaric  in 
Prince  Thorismund,  who  hVd  signahzed  himself  in  the  battle,  and 
had  been  chosen  on  the  field,  to  succeed  his  father  Theodoric.  Ht 
persuaded  the  young  king  to  return  at  once  to  his  capital,  and  thus 


i8«  GREAT   BATTLES    OF   ALL   NATIONS 

relieved  himself  at  the  same  time  of  the  presence  of  a  dangerous 
friend,  as  well  as  of  a  formidable  though  beaten  foe. 

Attila's  attacks  on  the  Western  empire  were  soon  renewed,  but 
never  with  such  peril  to  the  civilized  world  as  had  menaced  it  be- 
fore his  defeat  at  Chalons;  and  on  his  death,  two  years  after  that 
battle,  the  vast  empire  which  his  genius  had  founded  was  soon 
dissevered  by  the  successful  revolts  of  the  subject  nations.  The 
name  of  the  Huns  ceased  for  some  centuries  to  inspire  terror  in 
Western  Europe,  and  their  ascendency  passed  away  with  the  life 
of  the  great  king  by  whom  it  had  been  so  fearfully  augmented. 

[Creasy. 


CHAPTER    IX 
THE   DEFEAT   OF   ISLAM 

THE    BATTLE    OF   TOURS  — THE    RESCUE   OF    CHRISTENDOM  — 

THE    VICTORY  OF    KARL  MARTEL  — THE    CRESCENT 

AND   THE  CROSS 

A.  D.  732 

IN  France,  between  Poitiers  and  Tours,  lies  the  broad  tract  which 
was  the  scene  of  the  victory  that  rescued  Christendom  from 
Islam,  Had  the  battle  which  was  waged  there  resulted  in 
defeat,  "Perhaps,"  says  Gibbon,  "the  interpretation  of  the  Koran 
would  now  be  taught  at  Oxford,  and  her  pulpits  might  demonstrate 
the  truth  of  Mohammed's  revelation."  Schlegel  declares  that  the 
victory  "saved  and  delivered  the  Christian  nations  of  the  West 
from  the  deadly  grasp  of  all-destroying  Islam";  and  Ranke  points 
out,  as  "one  of  the  most  important  epochs  in  the  history  of  the 
world,  the  commencement  of  the  eighth  century,  when  on  the  one 
side  Mohammedanism  threatened  to  overspread  Italy  and  Gaul, 
and  on  the  other  the  ancient  idolatry  of  Saxony  and  Friesland  once 
more  forced  its  way  across  the  Rhine.  In  this  peril  of  Christian 
institutions,   a   youthful   prince   of   Germanic   race,   Karl   Martel, 


THE    DEFEAT    OF    ISLAM  189 

arose  as  their  chamijion,  iiiaiutained  them  with  all  the  energy 
which  the  necessity  for  seK-defense  calls  forth,  and  finally  extended 
them  into  new  regions." 

Arnold  ranks  the  victory  of  Charles  Martel  even  higher  than 
the  victory  of  Arminius,  '"among  those  signal  deliverances  which 
have  affected  for  centuries  the  happiness  of  mankind."  In  fact, 
the  more  we  test  its  importance,  the  higher  we  shall  be  led  to  esti- 
mate it;  and,  though  all  authentic  details  which  we  possess  of  its 
circumstances  and  its  heroes  are  but  meager,  we  can  trace  enough 
of  its  general  character  to  make  us  watch  with  deep  interest  this 
encounter  between  the  rival  conquerors  of  the  decaying  Roman 
empire.  That  old  classic  world,  the  history  of  which  occupies  so 
large  a  portion  of  our  early  studies,  lay,  in  the  eighth  century  of 
our  era,  utterly  exanimate  and  overthrown.  On  the  north  the 
German,  on  the  south  the  Arab,  was  rending  away  its  provinces. 
At  last  the  spoilers  encountered  one  another,  each  striving  for  the 
full  mastery  of  the  prey.  Their  conflict  brought  back  upon  the 
memory  of  Gibbon  the  old  Homeric  simile,  where  the  strife  of 
Hector  and  Patroclus  over  the  dead  body  of  Cebriones  is  compared 
to  the  combat  of  two  Hons,  that  in  their  hate  and  hunger  fight 
together  on  the  mountain  tops  over  the  carcass  of  a  slaughtered 
stag;  and  the  reluctant  jTelding  of  the  Saracen  power  to  the  supe- 
rior might  of  the  Northern  warriors  might  not  inaptly  recall  those 
other  lines  of  the  same  book  of  the  IHad,  where  the  downfall  of 
Patroclus  beneath  Hector  is  likened  to  the  forced  yielding  of  the 
panting  and  exhausted  ^\^ld  boar,  that  had  long  and  furiously 
fought  with  a  superior  beast  of  prey  for  the  possession  of  the  scanty 
foimtain  among  the  rocks  at  which  each  burned  to  drink. 

Although  three  centuries  had  passed  away  since  the  Germanic 
conquerors  of  Rome  had  crossed  the  Rhine,  never  to  repass  that 
frontier  stream,  no  settled  system  of  institutions  or  government,  no 
amalgamation  of  the  various  races  into  one  people,  no  uniformity 
of  language  or  habits,  had  been  established  in  the  country  at  the 
time  when  Charles  Martel  was  called  to  repel  the  menacing  tide  of 
Saracenic  invasion  from  the  south.  Gaul  was  not  yet  France.  In 
that,  as  in  other  provinces  of  the  Roman  empire  of  the  West,  the 
dominion  of  the  Caesars  had  been  shattered  as  early  as  the  fifth 


I90  GREAT   BATTLES    OF    ALL   NATIONS 

century,  and  barbaric  kingdoms  and  principalities  had  promptly- 
arisen  on  the  ruins  of  the  Roman  power.  But  few  of  these  had 
any  permanency,  and  none  of  them  consolidated  the  rest,  or  any 
considerable  number  of  the  rest,  into  one  coherent  and  organized 
civil  and  political  society.  The  great  bulk  of  the  population  stiU 
consisted  of  the  conquered  provincials ;  that  is  to  say,  of  Romanized 
Celts,  of  a  Gallic  race  which  had  long  been  under  the  dominion  of 
the  Caesars,  and  had  acquired,  together  with  no  slight  infusion 
of  Roman  blood,  the  language,  the  literature,  the  laws,  and  the 
civilization  of  Latium.  Among  these,  and  dominant  over  them, 
roved  or  dwelt  the  German  victors ;  some  retaining  nearly  all  the 
rude  independence  of  their  primitive  national  character,  others  soft- 
ened and  disciplined  by  the  aspect  and  contact  of  the  manners  and 
institutions  of  civilized  life ;  for  it  is  to  be  borne  in  mind  that  the 
Roman  empire  in  the  West  was  not  crushed  by  any  sudden 
avalanche  of  barbaric  invasion.  The  German  conquerors  came 
across  the  Rhine,  not  in  enormous  hosts,  but  in  bands  of  a  few 
thousand  warriors  at  a  time.  The  conquest  of  a  province  was  the 
result  of  an  infinite  series  of  partial  local  invasions,  carried  on  by 
little  armies  of  this  description.  The  victorious  warriors  either 
retired  with  their  booty,  or  fixed  themselves  in  the  invaded  district, 
taking  care  to  keep  sufficiently  concentrated  for  mihtary  purjioses, 
and  ever  ready  for  some  fresh  foray,  either  against  a  rival  Teutonic 
band,  or  some  hitherto  unassailed  city  of  the  provincials.  Grad- 
ually, however,  the  conquerors  acquired  a  desire  for  permanent 
landed  possessions.  They  lost  somewhat  of  the  restless  thirst  for 
novelty  and  adventure  which  had  first  made  them  throng  beneath 
the  banner  of  the  boldest  captains  of  their  tribe,  and  leave  their 
native  forests  for  a  roving  military  life  on  the  left  bank  of  the 
Rhine.  They  were  converted  to  the  Christian  faith,  and  gave  up 
with  their  old  creed  much  of  the  coarse  ferocity  which  must  have 
been  fostered  in  the  spirits  of  the  ancient  warriors  of  the  North  by 
a  mythology  which  promised,  as  the  reward  of  the  brave  on  earth, 
an  eternal  cycle  of  fighting  and  drunkenness  in  heaven. 

But,  although  their  conversion  and  other  civilizing  influences 
operated  powerfully  upon  the  Germans  in  Gaul,  and  although  the 
Franks  (who  were  originally  a  confederation  of  the  Teutonic  tribes 


THE    DEFEAT    OF    ISLAM  191 

that  dwelt  between  the  Rhine,  the  Maine,  and  the  Weser)  estab- 
hshed  a  decisive  superiority  over  the  other  conquerors  of  the  prov- 
ince, as  well  as  over  the  conquered  pro\nncials,  the  country  long 
remained  a  chaos  of  unconibiued  and  shifting  elements.  The  early 
princes  of  the  Merovingian  dynasty  were  generally  occupied  in 
wars  against  other  princes  of  their  house,  occasioned  by  the  fre- 
quent subdivisions  of  the  Frank  monarchy ;  and  the  ablest  and  best 
of  them  had  found  all  their  energies  tasked  to  the  utmost  to  defend 
the  barrier  of  the  Rhine  against  the  pagan  Germans  who  strove  to 
pass  that  river  and  gather  their  share  of  the  spoils  of  the  empire. 

The  conquests  which  the  Saracens  effected  over  the  southern 
and  eastern  provinces  of  Rome  were  far  more  rapid  than  those 
achieved  by  the  Germans  in  the  north,  and  the  new  organizations 
of  society  which  the  Moslems  introduced  were  summarily  and  uni- 
formly enforced.  Exactly  a  century  passed  between  the  death  of 
Mohammed  and  the  date  of  the  battle  of  Tours.  During  that  cent- 
ury the  followers  of  the  Prophet  had  torn  away  haK  the  Roman 
empire ;  and  besides  their  conquests  over  Persia,  the  Saracens  had 
overrun  Syria,  Egypt,  Africa,  and  Spain,  in  an  uncheckered  and 
apparently  irresistible  career  of  victory.  Nor,  at  the  commence- 
ment of  the  eighth  century  of  our  era,  was  the  Mohammedan  world 
divided  against  itself,  as  it  subsequently  became.  All  these  vast 
regions  obeyed  the  caliph ;  throughout  them  all,  from  the  Pyrenees 
to  the  Oxus,  the  name  of  Mohammed  was  invoked  in  prayer,  and 
the  Koran  revered  as  the  book  of  the  law. 

It  was  under  one  of  their  ablest  and  most  renowned  command- 
ers, with  a  veteran  army,  and  with  every  apparent  advantage  of 
time,  place,  and  circumstance,  that  the  Arabs  made  their  great 
effort  at  the  conquest  of  Europe  nortli  of  the  PjTenees.  The 
victorious  Moslem  soldiery  in  Spain, 

"A  countless  multitude; 
Syrian,  Moor,  Saracen,  Greek  renegade, 
Persian,  and  Copt,  and  Tartar,  in  one  bond 
Of  erring  faith  conjoined — strong  in  the  j^outh 
And  heat  of  zeal — a  dreadful  brotherhood," 

were  eager  for  the  plunder  of  more  Christian  cities  and  shrines, 
and  full  of  fanatic  confidence  in  the  invincibihty  of  their  arms. 


192  GREAT    BATTLES    OF    ALL    NATIONS 

"Nor  were  the  chiefs 
Of  victor}^  less  assured,  by  long  success 
Elate,  and  proud  of  that  o'er  whelming  strength 
Which,  surely  they  believed,  as  it  had  rolled 
Thus  far  uncheck'd,  would  roU  victorious  on. 
Till,  like  the  Orient,  the  subjected  West 
Should  bow  in  reverence  at  Mohammed's  name; 
And  pilgrims  from  remotest  Arctic  shores 
Tread  with  rehgious  feet  the  bm-ning  sands 
Of  Araby  and  Mecca's  stony  soil." 

— Southey's  Roderick. 

It  is  not  only  by  the  modern  Christian  poet,  but  by  the  old 
Arabian  chroniclers  also,  that  these  feelings  of  ambition  and  arro- 
gance are  attributed  to  the  Moslems  who  had  overthrown  the 
Visigoth  power  in  Spain.  And  their  eager  expectations  of  new 
wars  were  excited  to  the  utmost  on  the  reappointment  by  the  caliph 
of  Abderrahman  Ibn  Abdillah  Alghaf  eM  to  the  government  of  that 
country,  A.D.  729,  which  restored  them  a  general  who  had  signal- 
ized his  skill  and  prowess  during  the  conquests  of  Africa  and  Spain, 
whose  ready  valor  and  generosity  had  made  him  the  idol  of  the 
troops,  who  had  already  been  engaged  in  several  expeditions  into 
Gaul,  so  as  to  be  weU  acquainted  with  the  national  character  and 
tactics  of  the  Franks,  and  who  was  known  to  thirst,  like  a  good 
Moslem,  for  revenge  for  the  slaughter  of  some  detachments  of 
the  True  Believers,  which  had  been  cut  off  on  the  north  of  the 
Pyrenees. 

In  addition  to  his  cardinal  military  virtues,  Abderrahman  is  de- 
scribed by  the  Arab  writers  as  a  model  of  integrity  and  justice. 
The  first  two  years  of  his  second  administration  in  Spain  were  occu- 
pied in  severe  reforms  of  the  abuses  which  under  his  predecessors 
had  crept  into  the  system  of  government,  and  in  extensive  prepara- 
tions for  his  intended  conquest  in  Gaul.  Besides  the  troops  which 
he  collected  from  his  province,  he  obtained  from  Africa  a  large 
body  of  chosen  Berber  cavaby,  officered  by  Arabs  of  proved  skill 
and  valor;  and,  in  the  summer  of  732,  he  crossed  the  Pyrenees  at 
the  head  of  an  army  which  some  Arab  writers  rate  at  eighty  thou- 
sand strong,  while  some  of  the  Christian  chroniclers  swell  its  num- 
bers to  many  hundreds  of  thousands  more.  Probably  the  Arab 
account  diminishes,  but  of  the  two  keeps  nearer  to  the  truth.     It 


THE    DEFEAT    OF    ISLAM  .93 

was  from  this  formidable  host,  after  Eudes,  the  Count  of  Aquitaine, 
had  vainly  striven  to  check  it,  after  many  strong  cities  had  fallen 
before  it,  and  half  the  land  had  been  overrun,  that  Gaul  and  Chris- 
,tendom  were  at  last  rescued  by  the  strong  arm  of  Prince  Charles, 
^vho  acquired  a  surname,  like  that  of  the  war-god  of  his  forefath- 
ers' creed,  from  the  might  with  which  he  broke  and  shattered  his 
enemies  in  the  battle. 

The  Merovingian  kings  had  sunk  into  absolute  insignificance, 
and  had  become  mere  puppets  of  royalty  before  the  eighth  century. 
Charles  Martel,  like  his  father,  Pepin  Heristal,  was  Duke  of  the 
Austrasian  Franks,  the  bravest  and  most  thoroughly  Germanic 
part  of  the  nation,  and  exercised,  in  the  name  of  the  titular  king, 
what  little  paramount  authority  the  turbulent  minor  rulers  of  dis- 
tricts and  towns  could  be  persuaded  or  compelled  to  acknowledge. 
Engaged  with  his  national  competitors  in  perpetual  conflicts  for 
power,  and  in  more  serious  struggles  for  safety  against  the  fierce 
tribes  of  the  unconverted  Frisians,  Bavarians,  Saxons,  and  Thurin- 
gians,  who  at  that  epoch  assailed  with  peculiar  ferocity  the  Chris- 
tianized Germans  on  the  left  bank  of  the  Rhine,  Charles  Martel 
added  experienced  skill  to  his  natural  courage,  and  he  had  also 
formed  a  militia  of  veterans  among  the  Franks.  Hallam  has 
thrown  out  a  doubt  whether,  in  our  admu-ation  of  his  victory  at 
Tours,  we  do  not  judge  a  little  too  much  by  the  event,  and  whether 
there  was  not  rashness  in  his  risking  the  fate  of  France  on  the  result 
of  a  general  battle  with  the  invaders.  But  when  we  remember 
that  Charles  had  no  standing  army,  and  the  independent  spirit  of 
the  Frank  warriors  who  followed  his  standard,  it  seems  most  prob- 
able that  it  was  not  in  his  power  to  adopt  the  cautious  poUcy  of 
watching  the  invaders,  and  wearing  out  their  strength  by  delay. 
So  dreadful  and  so  widespread  were  the  ravages  of  the  Saracenic 
light  cavalry  throughout  Gaul  that  it  must  have  been  impossible 
to  restrain  for  any  length  of  time  the  indignant  ardor  of  the  Franks. 
And,  even  if  Charles  could  have  persuaded  his  men  to  look  tamely 
on  while  the  Arabs  stormed  more  towns  and  desolated  more  dis- 
tricts, he  could  not  have  kept  an  army  together  when  the  usual 
period  of  a  military  expedition  had  expired.  If,  indeed,  the  Arab 
account  of  the  disorganization  of  the  Moslem  forces  be  correct,  the 
G— Vol.  I. 


194  GREAT    BATTLES    OF    ALL    NATIONS 

battle  was  as  well  timed  on  the  part  of  Charles,  as  it  was,  beyond 
fdl  question,  well  fought. 

The  monkish  chroniclers,  from  whom  we  are  obliged  to  glean  a 
narrative  of  this  memorable  campaign,  bear  full  evidence  to  the  ter- 
ror which  the  Saracen  invasion  inspired  and  to  the  agony  of  that 
great  struggle.  The  Saracens,  say  they,  and  their  king,  who  was 
called  Abdirames,  came  out  of  Spain,  with  all  their  wives  and  their 
children  and  thoir  substance,  in  such  great  multitudes  that  no  man 
could  reckon  or  estimate  them.  They  brought  with  them  all  their 
armor,  and  whatever  they  had,  as  if  thej^  were  thenceforth  always 
to  dwell  in  France. 

"Then  Abderrahman,  seeing  the  land  filled  with  the  multitude 
of  his  army,  pierces  through  the  mountains,  tramples  over  rough 
and  level  ground,  plunders  far  into  the  country  of  the  Franks,  and 
smites  all  with  the  sword,  insomuch  that  when  Eudo  came  to  battle 
with  him  at  the  River  Garonne,  and  fled  before  him,  God  alone 
knows  the  number  of  the  slain.  Then  Abderrahman  pursued  after 
Count  Eudo,  and  while  he  strives  to  spoil  and  burn  the  holy  shrine 
at  Tours,  he  encounters  the  chief  of  the  Austrasian  Franks,  Charles, 
a  man  of  war  from  his  youth  up,  to  whom  Eudo  had  sent  warning. 
There  for  nearly  seven  days  they  strive  intensely,  and  at  last  they 
set  themselves  in  battle  array,  and  the  nations  of  the  North,  stand- 
ing firm  as  a  wall  and  impenetrable  as  a  zone  of  ice,  utterly  slay  the 
Arabs  with  the  edge  of  the  sword." 

The  European  writers  all  concur  in  speaking  of  the  fall  of 
Abderrahman  as  one  of  the  principal  causes  of  the  defeat  of  the 
Arabs,  who,  according  to  one  writer,  after  finding  that  their  leader 
was  slain,  dispersed  in  the  night,  to  the  agreeable  surprise  of  the 
Christians,  who  expected  the  next  morning  to  see  them  issue  from 
their  tents  and  renew  the  combat.  One  monkish  chronicler  puts 
the  loss  of  the  Arabs  at  three  hundred  and  seventy-five  thousand 
men,  while  he  says  that  only  one  thousand  and  se\  en  Christians  fell ; 
a  disparity  of  loss  which  he  feels  bound  to  account  for  by  a  special 
interposition  of  Providence.  I  have  translated  above  some  of  the 
most  spirited  passages  of  these  writers,  but  it  is  impossible  to  collect 
from  them  anything  Hke  a  full  or  authentic  description  of  the  great 
battle  itself  or  of  the  operations  which  preceded  and  followed  it. 


THH    DEFEAT    OF    ISLAM  195 

Though,  however  we  may  have  cause  to  regret  the  meagernpss 
and  doubtful  character  of  these  narratives,  we  have  the  great  ad- 
vantage of  being  able  to  compare  the  accounts  given  of  Abderrah- 
man's  expedition  by  the  national  writers  of  each  side.  This  is  a 
benefit  which  the  inquirer  into  antiquity  so  seldom  can  obtain,  that 
the  fact  of  possessing  it  in  the  case  of  the  battle  of  Tours  makes  us 
think  the  historical  testimony  respecting  that  great  event  more 
certain  and  satisfactory  than  is  the  case  in  many  other  instances, 
where  we  possess  abundant  details  respecting  military  exploits,  but 
where  those  details  come  to  us  from  the  annalist  of  one  nation  only, 
and  where  we  have,  consequently,  no  safeguard  against  the  exag- 
gerations, the  distortions,  and  the  fictions  which  national  vanity 
has  so  often  put  forth  in  the  garb  and  under  the  title  of  history. 
The  Arabian  writers  who  recorded  the  conquests  and  wars  of  their 
countrymen  in  Spain  have  narrated  also  the  expedition  into  Gaul 
of  their  great  emir,  and  his  defeat  and  death  near  Tours  in  battle 
with  the  host  of  the  Franks  under  King  Caldus,  the  name  into 
which  they  metamorphose  Charles  Martel. 

They  tell  us  how  there  was  war  between  the  count  of  the 
Frankish  frontier  and  the  Moslems,  and  how  the  count  gathered 
together  all  his  people  and  fought  for  a  time  with  doubtful  success. 
"But,"  say  the  Arabian  chroniclers,  "Abderrahman  drove  them 
back;  and  the  men  of  Abderrahman  were  puffed  up  in  spirit  by 
their  repeated  successes,  and  they  were  full  of  trust  in  the  valor 
and  the  practice  in  war  of  their  emir.  So  the  Moslems  smote  their 
enemies,  and  passed  the  River  Garonne,  and  laid  waste  the  country 
and  took  captives  without  number.  And  that  army  went  through 
all  places  like  a  desolating  storm.  Prosperity  made  these  warnors 
insatiable.  At  the  passage  of  the  river  Abderrahman  overthrew 
the  count,  and  the  count  retired  into  his  stronghold ;  but  the  Mos- 
lems fought  against  it,  and  entered  it  by  force  and  slew  the  count ; 
for  everything  gave  way  to  their  scimiters,  which  were  the  robbers 
of  lives.  All  the  nations  of  the  Franks  trembled  at  that  terrible 
army,  and  they  betook  them  to  their  king  Caldus  and  told  him  of 
the  havoc  made  by  the  Moslem  horsemen,  and  how  they  rode  at 
their  will  through  all  the  land  of  Xarbonne,  Toulouse,  and  Bor- 
deaux, and  they  told  the  king  of  the  death  of  their  count.    Then  the 


196  GREAT    BATTLES    OF    ALL    NATIONS 

king  bade  them  be  of  good  cheer,  and  offered  to  aid  them.  And  in 
the  one  hundred  and  fourteenth  year  he  mounted  his  horse,  and  he 
took  with  him  a  host  that  could  not  be  numbered,  and  went  against 
the  Moslems.  And  he  came  upon  them  at  the  great  city  of  Tours. 
And  Abderrahman  and  other  prudent  cavaliers  saw  the  disorder  of 
the  Moslem  troops,  ^v'ho  were  loaded  with  spoil;  but  they  did  not 
venture  to  displease  the  soldiers  b}"  ordering  them  to  abandon  every- 
thing except  their  arms  and  war-horses.  And  Abderrahman  trusted 
in  the  valor  of  his  soldiers,  and  in  the  good  fortune  which  had  ever 
attended  him.  But  (the  Arab  writer  remarks)  such  defect  of  disci- 
pline always  is  fatal  to  armies.  So  Abderrahman  and  his  host  at- 
tacked Tours  to  gain  still  more  spoil,  and  they  fought  against  it  so 
fiercely  that  they  stormed  the  city  almost  before  the  eyes  of  the 
army  that  came  to  save  it;  and  the  fury  and  the  cruelty  of  the 
Moslems  toward  the  inhabitants  of  the  city  was  like  the  fury  and 
cruelty  of  raging  tigers.  It  was  manifest,"  adds  the  Arab,  "that 
God's  chastisement  was  sure  to  follov\^  such  excesses;  and  Fortune 
thereupon  turned  her  back  upon  the  Moslems. 

' '  Near  the  River  O war,  the  two  great  hosts  of  the  two  languages 
and  the  two  creeds  were  set  in  array  against  each  other.  The  hearts 
of  Abderrahman,  his  captains,  and  his  men,  were  filled  with  wrath 
and  pride,  and  they  were  the  first  to  begin  the  fight.  The  Moslem 
horsemen  dashed  fierce  and  frequent  forward  against  the  battalions 
of  the  Franks,  who  resisted  manfully,  and  many  fell  dead  on  either 
side,  until  the  going  down  of  the  sun.  Night  parted  the  two  armies; 
but  in  the  gray  of  the  morning  the  Moslems  returned  to  the  battle. 
Their  cavaliers  had  soon  hewn  their  way  into  the  center  of  the 
Christian  host.  But  many  of  the  Moslems  were  fearful  for  the 
safety  of  the  spoil  which  they  had  stored  in  their  tents,  and  a  false 
cry  arose  in  their  ranks  that  some  of  the  enemy  wei'e  plundering 
the  camp;  whereupon  several  squadrons  of  the  Moslem  horsemen 
rode  off  to  protect  their  tents.  But  it  seemed  as  if  they  fled,  and 
all  the  host  was  troubled.  And  while  Abderrahman  strove  to  check 
their  tumult,  and  to  lead  them  back  to  battle,  the  warriors  of  the 
Franks  came  around  him,  and  he  was  pierced  through  with  many 
spears,  so  that  he  died.  Then  all  the  host  fled  before  the  enemy, 
and  many  died  in  the  flight.     This  deadly  defeat  of  the  Moslems, 


THE    DEFEAT    OF   ISLAM  197 

and  the  loss  of  the  great  leader  and  good  cavalier  Abderrahman, 
took  place  in  the  one  hundred  and  fifteenth  year. ' ' 

It  would  be  diflScult  to  expect  from  an  adversary  a  more  explicit 
confession  of  having  been  thoroughly  vanquished  than  the  Arabs 
here  accord  to  the  Europeans.  The  points  on  which  their  narrative 
differs  from  those  of  the  Christians — as  to  how  many  days  the 
conflict  lasted,  whether  the  assailed  city  was  actually  rescued  or 
not,  and  the  like — are  of  little  moment  compared  with  the  admitted 
great  fact  that  there  was  a  decisive  trial  of  strength  between  Frank 
and  Saracen,  in  which  the  former  conquered.  The  enduring  im- 
portance of  the  battle  of  Tours  in  the  eyes  of  the  Moslems  is  at- 
tested not  only  by  the  expressions  of  "the  deadly  battle"  and  "the 
disgraceful  overthrow"  which  their  writers  constantly  employ  when 
referring  to  it,  but  also  by  the  fact  that  no  more  serious  attempts  at 
conquest  beyond  the  Pyrenees  were  made  by  the  Saracens.  Charles 
Martel,  and  his  son  and  grandson,  were  left  at  leisure  to  consolidate 
and  extend  their  power.  The  new  Christian  Roman  empire  of  the 
West,  which  the  genius  of  Charlemagne  founded,  and  throughout 
which  his  iron  will  imposed  peace  on  the  old  anarchy  of  creeds  and 
races,  did  not  indeed  retain  its  integrity  after  its  great  ruler's  death. 
Fresh  troubles  came  over  Europe;  but  Christendom,  though  dis- 
united, was  safe.  The  progress  of  civihzation,  and  the  development 
of  the  nationalities  and  governments  of  modern  Europe,  from  that 
time  forth  went  forward  in  not  uninterrupted,  but  ultimately  cer- 
tain career. 


CHAPTER  X 
THE    CRUSADES 

RECOVERY  OF  THE   HOLY   LAND   FROM  THE   ilOHAMMEDANS— THE 
CAPTURE  OF  JERUSALEM- THE  REPULSE  OF  CHRISTENDOM 

A.  D.   1095—1272 

THE  Crusades  were  a  series  of  wars  waged  for  two  centuries 
by  the  Christian  nations  of  the  West,  with  the  object  of 
rescuing  the  Holy  Land  and  the  Sepulcher  of  Christ  from 
the  grasp  of  the  followers  of  Mohammed.  The  loss  of  life  which 
the}'  entailed  was  enormous,  but  the  accruing  benefits  are  manifest 
to-day.  Through  them  the  enfranchisement  of  the  human  mind 
began,  maritime  commerce  received  not  its  initial  but  its  strongest 
impulse,  and  social  changes  were  effected  from  which  liberty  and 
toleration  result.  In  weakening  the  resoiu-ces  and  power  of  the 
barons,  they  cemented  that  alhance  between  kings  and  citizens 
which  broke  up  the  feudal  sj'stem,  aboHshed  serfdom,  and  substi- 
tuted the  authority  of  a  common  law  for  the  arbitrary  will  of  chiefs. 
"Worthless  in  themselves,  and  wholly  useless  as  means  for  founding 
any  permanent  dominion  in  Palestine  or  elsewhere,  the  Crusades 
affected  the  commonwealths  of  Europe  in  ways  of  which  the  pro- 
moters never  dreamed.  They  left  a  wider  gulf  between  the  Greek 
and  the  Latin  churches,  between  the  subjects  of  the  Eastern  empire 
and  the  nations  of  Western  Europe ;  but,  by  the  mere  fact  of  throw- 
ing East  and  West  together,  they  led  to  that  interchange  of  thought 
and  that  awakening  of  the  human  intellect  to  which  we  owe  all  that 
distinguishes  our  modern  civilization  from  the  rehgious  and  political 
systems  of  the  Middle  Ages. 

The  causes  which  led  to  the  Crusades  are  less  complex  than  the 
results.    The  primary  motive  was  to  vindicate  the  right  of  Christian 
(198) 


THE   CRUSADES  199 

pilgrims  to  visit  the  Holy  Sepulcher.  For  ages  the  belief  had  been 
growing  that  nothing  was  moie  salutary  to  the  peace  of  the  soul 
than  such  a  visit.  When,  in  the  seventh  century,  Palestine  was 
conquered  by  the  Arabs,  the  right  to  come  and  go  was  secured  by 
treaty.  Not  merely  the  safety  of  pilgrims  was  assured,  they  were 
allowed  the  free  exercise  of  their  religion,  subject  only  to  the  con- 
ditions that  Mohammedans  should  have  the  right  of  admission  to 
their  churches  at  all  hours ;  that  the  cross  should  not  be  seen  on  the 
exterior  of  any  building,  or  be  carried  about  the  streets ;  and,  finally, 
that  the  Christians  should  be  disarmed,  and  should  show  respect  to 
their  conquerors  by  wearing  a  distinguishing  dress  and  by  rising  up 
at  the  approach  of  true  believers.  The  hardships  thus  imposed  may 
have  been  sensibly  felt ;  but  the  pilgrims  and  merchants  still  came 
and  went  practically  without  let  or  hinderance.  Such  persecution 
as  there  was  fell  on  the  Jews  only,  and  the  tax  imposed  on  each 
pilgrim,  and  levied  on  his  entering  Jerusalem,  was  probably  not 
resented  as  a  wrong.  To  the  wealthier  Christians  it  brought  an 
opportunity  for  securing  a  higher  degree  of  merit  by  paying  the 
charge  for  their  poorer  brethren,  while  the  completion  of  the  first 
Christian  millennium  removed  a  burden  which  had  lain,  with  in- 
creasing heaviness,  on  the  spirits  and  energies  of  men,  and  gave  a 
fresh  impetus  to  the  feeling  which  carried  the  devout  to  the  Holy 
Land.  The  end  of  the  tenth  century,  it  was  almost  universally 
believed,  would  be  the  end  of  the  world.  The  beginning  of  a  new 
age  relieved  them  of  this  mental  incubus,  and  the  stream  of  pil- 
grims became  larger  than  ever.  The  path  followed  by  these 
devotees  was  not  always  strewn  with  roses.  Inclement  seasons, 
poverty  and  sickness  proved  fatal  to  manj^;  but  these  disasters 
were  not  caused  by  the  attack  of  open  enemies,  and  the  conversion 
of  Hungary  removed  a  formidable  obstacle  for  those  who  had  to 
traverse  the  heart  of  Europe  in  order  to  reach  Palestine. 

A  few  years  later,  these  fairer  prospects  were  permanently 
clouded  by  the  advance  of  the  Seljukian  Turks,  who,  in  their 
inroads  into  the  Eastern  empire,  found  themselves  effectually  aided 
by  the  subjects  of  the  emperor.  Tlie  causes  of  discontent  were  in- 
deed many  and  deep.  Extortion  and  tyranny,  both  secular  and 
ecclesiastical,  had  aUenated  thousands,  while  the  population  was 


2CXD  GREAT    BATTLES    OF    ALL    NATIONS 

serioiisl}"  lessened  by  the  accumulation  of  land  in  the  hands  of  a 
few  owners.  Before  the  close  of  the  eleventh  centur}^  107G,  Jeru- 
salem had  opened  her  gates  to  the  Seljukian  Toucush,  and  in  place 
of  a  legal  toll  the  pilgrims  found  themselves  subjected  henceforth  to 
indefinite  extortion,  to  wanton  insult,  and  to  massacre.  The  sanc- 
tuaries of  the  Christians  were  profaned,  their  worship  was  inter- 
rupted, their  patriarchs  were  thrown  into  dungeons.  The  effect 
of  these  changes  was  felt  not  by  the  devout  only.  The  supplying 
of  their  wants  had  called  forth  the  energies  of  merchants;  and  the 
fleets  of  Genoa,  Pisa,  and  Amalfi  hurried  to  the  ports  of  the  Holy 
Land  for  the  great  Easter  fair  at  Jerusalem.  All  these  were  now 
driven  away,  and  there  remained  only  the  miserable  train  of  pil- 
grims, who  returned  to  Europe,  if  they  returned  at  all,  with  tales 
of  dire  indignities  done  to  men,  women,  and  children  alike. 

The  recital  of  these  wrongs  went  far  toward  fanning  into  flame 
the  feelings  which  the  Popes  had  hitherto  failed  to  waken  in  suffi- 
cient strength.  The  idea  of  an  armed  host  which  should  inflict 
summary"  vengeance  on  the  oppressors  of  the  Christians  had  already 
dawned  on  the  mind  of  the  great  Hildebrand,  Gregory  VII. ;  it  had 
been  vehemently  urged  by  his  successor,  Victor  III. ;  but  neither 
had  struck  the  right  chord.  Such  enterprises  can  never  be  set  in 
motion,  with  any  solid  results,  except  when  the  flood- tide  of  popu- 
lar feeling  gives  its  own  weight  to  the  sanction  of  religious  author- 
ity. Nor  was  this  result  more  satisfactorj^  when,  in  1081,  Robert 
Guiscard  set  out  from  Brundusium  (Brindisi),  with  a  fleet  of  one 
hundred  and  fifty  ships  and  a  force  of  thirty  thousand  men.  Guis- 
card himself  besieged  Dyrrhachium  (Durazzo)  in  vain;  under  his 
son  Bohemond  his  fleet  was  miserably  defeated.  Four  years  later 
Guiscard  made  another  attempt,  which  was  frustrated  by  his  death 
at  Cefalonia  (Kephallenia).  But  Hildebrand  had  been  dead  onh- 
ten  years  when  a  vast  throng  of  clerks  and  laymen  was  gathered 
to  meet  Urban  II.  at  Piacenza  (Placentia).  In  Italy,  however, 
Urban  felt  that  he  could  not  look  for  the  enthusiasm  which  would 
justify  him  in  making  the  final  venture.  From  Piacenza  he  made 
his  way  to  his  old  home  in  the  great  abbey  of  Clun}^  and,  in  the 
autumn  of  1095,  appeared  at  Clermont,  in  the  territories  of  the 
Count  of  Auvergne. 


THE    CRUSADES  201 

Here  he  found  that  there  was  no  longer  any  need  of  holding 
back.  To  the  north  of  the  Alps  the  indignation  of  the  people  had 
been  aroused  to  fever  heat  by  the  preaching  of  Peter  the  Hermit. 
With  the  stature  and  ungainliness  of  a  dwarf,  emaciated  by  the 
austerities  of  his  self-imposed  discipline,  this  man,  who  had  for- 
saken his  wife  and  abandoned  his  military  standard  under  the 
counts  of  Boulogne,  had  returned  from  the  Holy  Land  with  his 
heart  on  fire,  not  so  much  from  the  memor}^  of  the  hardships  which 
he  had  himself  undergone  as  for  the  cruelties  and  tortures  which 
he  had  seen  inflicted  on  his  fellow-Christians.  Simeon,  the  patri- 
arch of  Jerusalem,  to  whom  he  first  betook  himself,  could  only 
bewail  the  weakness  of  the  emperor  and  of  his  government.  "The 
nations  of  the  West  shall  take  up  arms  in  3'our  cause,"  was  the 
i-eply  of  the  Hermit,  who  soon  afterward,  armed  with  the  special 
blessing  of  Urban  II.,  mounted  his  ass,  and  with  bare  head  and 
feet,  carrying  a  huge  crucifix,  traversed  the  Teutonic  lands,  rous- 
ing everywhere  the  uncontrollable  indignation  which  devoured  his 
own  soul.  His  vehemence  carried  all  before  him ;  none  the  less, 
perhaps,  because  he  bade  them  remember  that  no  sins  were  too 
heinous  to  be  washed  away  by  the  waters  of  the  Jordan,  no  evil 
habits  too  deadly  to  be  condoned  for  the  one  good  work  which 
should  make  them  champions  of  the  cross.  Urban,  however,  antl 
his  counselors,  knew  well  that  before  the  fatal  die  could  be  pru- 
dentlj"  cast  a  serious  task  lay  before  them.  The  system  of  feudal- 
ism substituted  personal  ascendency  for  the  dominion  of  law ;  and 
wherever  the  personal  bond  failed,  the  resort  was  inevitably  to 
private  war.  The  practice  of  such  wars  had  become  virtually  an 
organized  trade;  and  if  a  large  proportion  of  the  population  should 
be  drawn  away  to  fight  against  the  infidel  in  Palestine,  those  who 
remained  at  home  would  be  without  defense.  Such  wars  were, 
therefore,  formally  condemned;  the  women  and  the  clergy,  mer- 
chants and  husbandmen,  were  placed  under  the  special  protection 
(^f  the  Church,  and  the  Truce  of  God  was  solemnly  confirmed.  The 
nearer  and  more  immediate  dangers  being  thus  guarded  against, 
Urban,  from  a  lofty  scaffold,  addressed  the  assembled  multitude, 
dwelling,  in  the  first  place,  and,  perhaps,  not  altogether  prudently, 
on  the  cowardice  of  the   Turks,  and  on  the  title  to  victoiy  which 


202  GREAT    BATTLES    OF   ALL    NATIONS 

birth  in  a  temperate  climate  conferred  on  the  Christians.  They 
were  thus  sure  of  success,  and  sure,  too,  to  win  an  infinitely  higher 
blessing — the  remission  of  their  sins.  Sufferings  and  torments  more 
excruciating  than  any  which  they  could  picture  to  themselves  might 
indeed  await  them ;  but  the  agonies  of  their  bodies  would  redeem  their 
souls.  "With  the  passionate  outburst,  "It  is  the  ^411  of  God,  it  is  the 
will  of  God,"  the  vast  throng  broke  in  upon  the  Pontiff's  words. 

So  was  sanctioned  the  mighty  enterprise  which  hurled  the  forces 
of  Latin  Christendom  on  the  infidels  who  had  crushed  the  East 
under  the  yoke  of  Islam ;  and  so  it  received  its  name.  Of  the  thou- 
sands who  hastened  to  put  on  the  badge,  the  greater  number  were 
animated  probably  by  the  most  disinterested  motives,  while  some 
had  their  eyes  fixed  on  the  results  of  more  politic  calculations.  For 
the  multitude  at  large  there  was  the  paramount  attraction  of  an 
enterprise  which  the  abbot  Guibert  boldly  put  before  them  as  a 
new  mode  of  salvation,  which  enabled  the  layman,  without  laying 
aside  his  habits  of  wild  license,  to  reach  a  height  of  perfection 
scarcely  to  be  attained  by  the  most  austere  monk  or  the  most 
devoted  priest. 

In  the  enterprise  sanctioned  by  the  Council  of  Clermont,  no 
nation,  as  such,  took  any  part;  and  this  fact  serves  perhaps  to 
explain  the  measure  of  its  success  and  its  failure.  Had  it  been 
necessary  to  wait  for  strictly  national  action,  the  work  perhaps 
would  never  have  been  done  at  all;  but  had  it  been  a  national 
undertaking  some  attempt  must  have  been  made  to  establish  a 
commissariat,  and  to  insure  something  like  harmonious  and  efficient 
generalship.  As  it  was,  the  crusading  army  was  simply  a  gather- 
ing of  individual  adventurers  who  depended  on  their  own  resources, 
or  of  reckless  pilgrims  who  neither  possessed  nor  cared  to  provide 
•Any.  The  contributions  made  to  this  army  by  the  different  coun- 
tries of  Europe  varied  largely.  From  Italy,  where  the  charm  was 
in  great  part  dispelled  by  the  struggle  between  Pope  and  anti-Pope, 
few  came  besides  the  Normans  who  had  fought  under  the  standards 
of  Robert  Guiscard.  The  Spaniards  were  fully  occupied  with  a 
crusade  nearer  home,  which  was  to  turn  the  tide  of  Mohammedan 
conquest  that  had  once  passed  the  barriers  of  the  Pyrenees  and 
threatened  to  flow  onward  to  the  shores  of  the  Baltic.     In  Germany 


THE   CRUSADES  203 

there  was  no  great  eagerness  among  partisans  of  emperors  whom 
popes  had  sought  to  humble  to  undertake  a  difficult  and  dangerous 
pilgrimage.  In  England  the  condition  of  things  which  followed 
the  victory  of  William  over  Harold  prevented  both  the  conquerors 
and  their  subjects  from  committing  themselves  to  distant  enter- 
prises, while  the  Red  King  was  more  anxious  to  have  the  duch}-  of 
his  brother  Robert  in  pledge  than  ready  to  run  the  risk  of  losing 
his  own  kingdom.  Thus  the  task  of  reconquering  Palestine  fell 
to  princes  of  the  second  order.  Foremost  among  these  was  God- 
frey of  Bouillon  in  the  Ardennes,  Duke  of  Lothringen  (Lorraine), 
whose  high  personal  character  brought  to  his  standard,  we  are 
told,  not  less  than  ten  thousand  horsemen  and  eighty  thousand 
infantry,  and  who  was  accompanied  by  his  brothers  Baldwin  and 
Eustace,  Count  of  Boulogne.  Next  to  him,  perhaps  may  be  placed, 
first,  Hugh,  Count  of  Vermandois,  surnamed  the  Great,  according 
to  some,  as  being  the  brother  of  Philip  I.,  the  French  king,  or,  as 
others  would  have  it,  simply  from  his  stature;  second,  Robert, 
Duke  of  Normandy,  who  had  pa^vned  his  duchy  to  his  brother,  the 
English  king,  and  who  was  destined  to  end  his  days  in  the  dun- 
geons of  Cardiff  Castle;  third,  Robert,  Count  of  Flanders,  cele- 
brated by  his  followers  as  the  Sword  and  Lance  of  the  Christians ; 
fourth,  Stephen,  Count  of  Chartres,  Troyes  and  Blois;  fifth,  Ad- 
hemar  (Aymer),  Bishop  of  Puy,  the  first  of  the  clergy  who  assumed 
the  cross,  and  rewarded  as  such  with  the  office  of  Papal  legate ; 
sixth,  Raymond,  Count  of  Toulouse,  Lord  of  Auvergne  and  Lan- 
guedoc,  the  leader,  it  is  said,  of  one  hundred  and  sixty  thousand 
horse  and  foot,  and  widely  kno\vn  for  his  haughtiness  and  his 
avarice  not  less  than  for  his  courage  and  his  wisdom ;  seventh,  the 
politic  and  ambitious  Bohemond,  son  of  Robert  Guiscard,  who  had 
left  to  him,  not  his  Apulian  domains,  but  only  the  principaHty  of 
Tarentum,  to  which  Bohemond  was  resolved  to  add  a  kingdom 
stretching  from  the  Dalmation  coast  to  the  northern  shores  of  the 
^gean  Sea;  eighth,  Tancred,  son  of  the  Marquis  Odo  the  Good 
and  of  Emma,  the  sister  of  Robert  Guiscard,  the  hero  who,  beyond 
all  his  colleagues,  appears  as  the  embodiment  of  those  pecuhar 
sentiments  which  gave  rise  to  the  crasades,  and  who  approaches 
nearest  to  the  idea  of  Chaucer'a  "very  perfect  gentle  knight." 


2C54  GREAT    BATTLES    OF    ALL    NATIONS 

The  Feast  of  the  Assumption,  August  15,  1096,  had  been  fixed 
at  the  Council  of  Clermont  as  the  day  on  which  the  crusaders 
should  set  off  for  Constantinople ;  but  Httle  more  than  half  the 
interval  had  gone  by  when  the  hermit  Peter  undertook  the  task 
of  leading  to  Palestine  a  motle}'  crowd  of  men  and  women.  Peter 
was  accompanied  as  far  as  Cologne  hj  Walter  the  Penniless,  who 
thence  led  his  followers  to  Hungary,  while  another  multitude 
marched  under  Emico,  Count  of  Leiningeji,  and  a  fourth  followed 
the  guidance  of  the  monk  Gottschalk.  Behind  those  came,  we  are 
told,  a  throng  of  men,  women  and  children,  amounting  to  two  hun- 
dred thousand,  under  standards  on  which  were  painted  a  goose  and 
a  goat,  symbols  cf  the  mysterious  faith  of  Gnostics  and  Paulicians. 
These  undisciplined  multitudes  turned  tiercel}'  upon  the  Jews,  who 
were  massacred  in  the  streets  of  Verdun,  Treves,  and  the  great 
Rhenish  cities,  until  the  emperor  interfered  and  took  them  under 
his  protection.  C)f  the  followers  of  Peter,  seven  thousand  only, 
it  is  said,  reached  Constantinople.  These,  by  the  orders  of  the 
Emperor  Alexius,  were  at  once  conveyed  across  the  Bosphorus, 
and  there,  with  the  bands  of  Walter  the  Penniless,  fell  into  a  trap 
laid  for  them  by  the  Seljukdan  Sultan  David,  surnamed  Kilidj 
Arslan,  the  Sword  of  the  Lion.  A  heap  of  bones  alone  remained 
to  tell  the  story  of  their  destruction,  when  the  hosts  under  Godfrey 
came  thither  on  their  march  to  Palestine.  These  had  advanced 
unopposed  as  far  as  the  Hungarian  border,  where  three  weeks  were 
lost  in  negotiations  with  the  Hungarian  king,  who  dreaded  a  repe- 
tition of  the  violence  which  his  people  had  suffered  at  the  hands  of 
the  rabble  led  by  Peter  and  the  moneyless  Walter.  With  Stephen 
of  Chartres,  Robert  of  Flanders,  and  Robert  of  Normandy,  Hugh 
of  Vermandois  had  set  out  to  make  his  way  through  Italy,  and 
taken  ship  at  Ban.  Wrecked  on  the  coast  between  Palos  and 
Durazzo,  he  was  detained  at  the  latter  place  until  the  pleasure  of 
the  Emperor  Alexius  should  be  known.  Alexius  at  once  ordered 
that  he  should  be  brought  to  Constantinople,  and  so  charmed  his 
prisoner  Iw  the  gracious  manner  whicli  he  could  put  on  or  off  at 
will,  that  Hugh  not  only  paid  him  homage  and  declared  himself 
]:is  man,  but  promised  so  far  as  he  could  to  get  his  colleagues  to 
follow  his  example. 


THE    CRUSADES  20$ 

The  tidings  of  Hugh's  detention  roused  the  wrath  of  Godfrey, 
who,  having  in  vain  demanded  his  release,  marched  from  Phihppo- 
pohs,  and  appeared  before  the  walls  of  Constantinople  at  Christ- 
mas, 1096.  Alexius  saw  before  him  a  mighty  host;  another  not 
less  formidable  was  on  its  way,  he  was  told,  under  Bohemond  and 
Tancred ;  and  Bohemond,  as  he  knew,  claimed  by  right  of  inheri- 
tance no  small  part  of  his  empire.  These  swarms  he  had  brought 
upon  his  land  by  his  appeals  for  the  aid  of  Western  Christendom, 
and  he  was  now  anxious  at  one  moment  to  rid  himself  of  their 
presence,  at  another  to  win  the  submission  of  the  crusading  chiefs, 
and  so  obtain  a  hold  on  their  future  conquests.  At  length  a  com- 
pact was  made  by  which  they  gave  him  their  fealty  so  long  only 
as  they  remained  within  his  borders,  and  pledged  themselves  to 
restore  those  of  their  conquests  which  had  been  recently  wrested 
from  the  empire,  while  on  his  part  he  promised  to  supply  them  with 
food  and  to  protect  all  pilgrims  passing  through  his  dominions. 
Bohemond,  on  reaching  Constantinople,  was  indignant  when  he 
learned  that  his  colleagues  had  become  vassals  of  the  emperor ;  but 
he  soon  found  that  he  must  at  least  appear  to  follow  their  example, 
and  he  was  repaid  by  a  splendid  bribe  from  Alexius,  who  adopted 
Godfrey  as  his  son.  With  Raymond  of  Toulouse,  Alexius  had  a 
hard  task.  The  chief,  who  scarcely  regarded  himself  as  the  vassal 
even  of  the  French  king,  refused  to  do  more  than  be  the  emperor's 
friend  on  equal  terms,  even  though  Bohemond  threatened  that,  if 
the  quarrel  came  to  blows,  he  should  be  on  the  side  of  Alexius. 
The  latter,  however,  soon  saw  through  the  temper  of  Raymond; 
and  the  harmonj^  which  followed  this  dispute  was  so  thorough 
that  Anna  Comnena  could  speak  of  him  as  shining  among  the 
barbarians  as  the    sun  among  the  stars  of  heaven. 

It  was  not  until  the  Feast  of  Pentecost,  1097,  that  the  last  of 
the  bands  of  Latin  pilgrims  was  conveyed  to  the  Asiatic  shore. 

Whatever  may  have  been  the  luimbers  of  the  crusaders  (and 
the  chaplain  of  Count  Baldwin  could  speak  of  them  as  six  millions), 
they  found  themselves  on  the  eastern  shore  of  the  Bosphorus,  con- 
fronted by  a  formidable  adversary  in  Kilidj  Arslan,  who,  retreat- 
ing with  his  horsemen  to  the  mountains,  swooped  down  upon  the 
Christians,  by  whom  his  capital  city  of  Nice  (Nikaia)  was  vainl;^ 


2o6  GREAT   BATTLES   OF   ALL    NATIONS 

invested  for  seven  weeks.  At  length  the  city  was  surrendered,  not 
to  the  crusaders  but  to  Alexius,  and  the  former,  advancing  on  their 
eastward  march,  were  again  confronted  by  the  Turks  near  the 
Phrygian  DorylsBum.  The  battle,  desperately  contested,  ended  in 
the  complete  defeat  of  the  latter ;  but  the  son  of  Kilidj  Arslan,  hast- 
ening on  before  the  crusaders  as  they  marched  to  Cogni,  Erekli,  and 
the  Pisidian  Antioch,  gave  out  before  the  gates  of  each  city  that  he 
was  come  as  a  conqueror.  On  his  way  he  had  ravaged  the  land ;  in 
the  towns  the  houses  had  been  plundered  and  the  granaries  emptied ; 
and  the  crusaders  had  to  journey  through  a  country  which  could 
supply  nothing.  The  burning  heat  caused  fatal  sickness ;  and,  as 
if  these  miseries  were  not  enough,  the  acquisition  of  Tarsus  was 
followed  by  an  attempt  at  private  war  between  Tancred  and  Bald- 
win, owing  to  a  dispute  for  the  precedence  of  their  banners.  The 
remissness  of  the  enemy,  which  might  easily  have  cut  them  off  in 
the  passes  of  Mount  Taurus,  allowed  them  to  march  safely  through 
the  defiles ;  and  Baldwin,  Godfrey's  brother,  was  enabled  to  com- 
ply with  a  request  for  help  made  by  the  Greek  or  Armenian  ruler 
of  Edessa.  Welcomed  into  the  city,  Baldwin  made  himself  master, 
and  the  Latin  principality  of  Edessa  thus  established  lasted  for  fifty- 
four,  or,  as  some  have  supposed,  forty-seven  years. 

In  the  Syrian  Antioch  the  crusaders  hoped  to  win  a  splendid 
prize  at  the  cost  of  a  Httle  effort  or  none.  Its  walls  were  mostly  in 
ruins ;  but  the  Seljukian  governor,  Baghasian,  had  resolved  on  de- 
termined resistance.  The  siege  which  followed  has  no  interest  for 
the  military  historian.  At  no  time  was  the  blockade  complete,  and 
it  was  brought  to  a  successful  issue  only  by  treachery.  Three 
months  had  already  passed  when  the  crusaders  found  themselves 
in  desperate  straits  for  want  of  food.  They  had  wasted  with  fran- 
tic folly  the  cattle,  the  corn,  and  the  wine  which  had  fallen  into 
their  hands ;  and  when  this  first  famine  was  relieved  by  a  foraging 
expedition  under  Tancred,  the  suppUes  so  brought  in  were  wasted 
with  equal  recklessness.  A  second  famine  drove  away  not  only 
Taticius,  the  lieutenant  of  the  Greek  emperor,  but  William  of  Melun, 
whose  sledge-hammer  blows  dealt  in  battle  had  won  him  the  sur- 
name of  the  Carpenter,  and  even  the  hermit  Peter.  Taticius  made 
his  way  to  Cyprus ;  the  other  two  were  caught  and  brought  back  to 


THE   CRUSADES  207 

the  camp  by  Tancred.     It  was  at  this  timo,  when  the  general  pros- 
pect seemed  so  discouraging,  that  envoys  from  the  Fatimite  cahph 
of  Egypt  offered  to  guarantee  to  all  unarmed  pilgrims  an  unmo- 
lested sojourn  of  one  month  in  Jerusalem,  and  to  aid  the  crusaders 
on  their  march  to  the  Holy  City,  if  they  would  acknowledge  his 
supremacy  within  the  bounds  of  his  Syrian  empire.     The  reply  of 
the  crusaders  was  brief  and  definite.     God  had  destined  Jerusalem 
for  Christians;  if  any  others  held  it  they  were  invaders  who  must 
be  cast  out.     This  defiance  was  followed  by  a  victory  won  over 
some  re-enforcements  which  were  hastening  from   Cesarea  and 
other  cities  to  the  aid  of  Baghasian.     But  the  time  went  on;  the 
siege  was  still  protracted;  and  there  were  rumors  that  a  Persian 
army  was  approaching.     To  Bohemond  it  seemed  that  there  was  no 
hope  of  success  except  from  fraud,  and  that  from  fraud  he  might 
reap  a  goodly  harvest.     In  a  renegade  Christian  named  Phirouz  he 
found  a  traitor  ready  to  do  his  work;  and  he  was  able  now  to  an- 
nounce in  the  council  that  he  could  place  the  city  in  their  hands, 
and  that  he  would  do  so  if  they  would  allow  him  to  rule  in  Antioch 
as  Baldwin  ruled  in  Edessa.     In  spite  of  a  protest  from  Raymond 
of  Toulouse,  the  compact  was  accepted,  1098;   and  on  the  same 
night  Bohemond  with  a  few  followers  climbed  the  wall,  and  hav- 
ing seized  ten  towers,  of  which  they  killed  aU  the  guards,  opened 
a  gate  and  admitted  the  Christian  hosts.     In  the  confusion  which 
followed  their  entrance  some  of  the  besieged  shut  themselves  up  in 
the  citadel.     Of  the  rest,  ten  thousand,  it  is  said,  were  massacred. 
Baghasian  escaped  beyond  the  besieger's  Hues;  but  he  fell  from  his 
horse,  and  a  Syrian  Christian,  cutting  off  his  head,  carried  it  to  the 
camp  of  the  crusaders,  who  now  passed  from  famine  to  plenty,  from 
extreme  hunger  to  wild  riot.     They  were  committing  a  blunder  as 
Avell  as  a  sin.     The  Persians  were  at  hand;  and  the  Turks  in  the 
citadel  found  that  the  crusaders  lay  between  themselves  and  the 
hosts  of  Kerboga,  prince  of  Mosul,  and  Kihdj  Arslan.     The  Latin 
camp  was  again  wasted  with  famine.    Stephen  of  Chartres,  who  had 
deserted  it  before  the  betrayal  of  the  city  to  Bohemond,  had  on  his 
westward  journey  met  the  Emperor  Alexius,  who  was  marching  to 
the  aid  of  the  crusaders  with  a  largo  body  of  pilgrims  from  Europe. 
Stephen's  tidings  were  followed  by  an  order  for  retreat,  and  the 


2o8  GREAT    BATTLES    OF    ALL    NATIONS 

pilgrims  were  compelled  to  turn  back  with  their  companions.  Pro- 
testing in  vain  against  this  shameful  breach  of  his  duty  and  his  vow, 
Guy,  a  brother  of  Bohemond,  said  in  the  vehemence  of  his  rage  that 
if  God  were  all-powerful  He  would  not  suffer  such  things  to  be  done. 

In  Antioch  the  desperation  of  the  crusaders  made  them  listen 
eagerly  to  stories  of  dreams  and  revelations  from  heaven,  A  Lom- 
bard priest  had  learned  in  a  vision  that  the  third  year  of  the  crusade 
should  see  the  conquest  of  Jerusalem,  and  those  who  had  heard  from 
the  lips  of  the  Saviour  himself  a  rebuke  of  the  vices  which  had 
caused  all  their  disasters  had  also  been  assured  that  in  five  days  the 
needful  help  would  be  granted  to  them.  The  impulse,  once  given, 
gained  strength.  Peter  Barthelemy,  the  chaplain  of  Raymond  of 
Toulouse,  related  a  revelation  made  to  him  by  St.  Andrew.  The 
steel  head  of  the  spear  which  had  pierced  the  side  of  the  Redeemer 
as  He  hung  on  the  cross  had  been  hidden,  according  to  this  tale,  in 
the  church  of  St.  Peter;  and  the  recovery  of  this  lance  would  be 
followed  by  immediate  and  decisive  success.  Two  days  were  to 
be  spent  in  special  devotion ;  on  the  third  they  were  to  search  for  the 
long-lost  weapon.  The  night  had  come,  and  their  toil  had  thus  far 
gone  for  nothing,  when  the  priest  stepped  down  into  the  pit.  After 
some  strokes  of  his  spade  he  came  upon  the  holy  rehc,  which  was 
carefully  wrapped  in  a  cloth  of  silk  and  gold.  The  priest  displayed 
the  lance  head,  and  in  a  few  minutes  the  wonderful  tidings  had 
been  spread  through  the  city.  A  few  months  later  Arnold,  the 
chaplain  of  Bohemond,  publicly  denied  the  genuineness  of  the  relic, 
and  charged  the  chaplain  of  Raymond  with  deliberate  imposture. 
Barthelemy  appealed  to  the  ordeal  of  fire,  and  passed  it,  to  all  ap- 
pearance, successfully.  The  bystanders  were  loud  in  their  exulta- 
tion ;  but  Peter  had  been  fatally  injured,  and  in  a  few  days  he  died. 

Meanwhile  the  holy  lance,  borne  by  the  papal  legate  Adhemar, 
had  effectually  aided  the  crusaders  in  the  decisive  struggle  with 
Kerboga,  before  whom  Peter  the  Hermit  had  appeared  as  an  envoj' 
charged  to  submit  to  him  the  alternative  of  baptism  or  of  retreat 
from  a  land  which  St.  Peter  had  bestowed  upon  the  Christians;  the 
answer  was  a  curt  refusal.  A  battle  followed  in  which  Bohemond 
was  severely  pressed  by  Kilidj  Arslan,  and  Kerboga  was  bearing 
(luAvn  the  forces  of  Godfrey  and  Hugh  of  Vermandois  when  some 


•  THE   CRUSADES  20g 

knights,  clothed  in  white  armor  and  mounted  on  white  horses,  were 
seen  riding  along  the  slopes  of  the  neighboring  hills.  "The  saints 
are  come  to  our  help, ' '  cried  the  papal  legate,  and  the  imagination 
of  the  people  at  once  beheld  in  these  strangers  the  martyrs  St. 
George,  St.  Theodore,  and  St.  Maurice.  The  impulse  imparted  by 
this  conv'iction  was  irresistible.  The  complete  defeat  of  Kerboga 
and  Arslan  was  followed  by  the  surrender  of  the  garrison  in  the 
citadel,  and  Bohemond  remained  Lord  of  Antioch. 

Ten  months  after  the  fall  of  Antioch  the  crusaders,  having  be- 
come masters  of  Laodicea,  were  bidden  by  the  Emperor  Alexius  to 
await  his  coming  in  June.  But  with  him  their  forbearance  had 
reached  its  limits,  and  they  bade  him  remember  that,  having 
broken  his  compact,  he  had  no  longer  any  claim  on  their  obedience. 
Marching  across  the  plain  of  Berytus  and  along  the  narrow  strip  of 
country  once  celebrated  for  the  wealth  and  splendor  of  the  great 
PhcBnician  cities,  the  army  at  length  reached  Jaffa,  and  thence 
turned  inland  to  Ramlah,  a  town  only  sixteen  miles  distant  from 
Jerusalem.  Two  days  later  they  came  in  view  of  the  Holy  Cit}'. 
At  the  sight  of  the  distant  walls  and  towers  all  fell  on  their  knees, 
in  an  outburst  of  thankfulness  which  could  express  itself  only  in 
sighs  and  tears,  while  they  stooped  to  kiss  the  sacred  soil.  The 
rest  of  the  march  they  performed  with  bare  feet,  and  in  the  garb 
of  pilgrims;  but  their  armor  was  again  put  on  when  Raj'-mond  of 
Toulouse,  with  his  followers,  invested  the  city  from  the  western 
side,  while  Godfrey  and  Tancred,  with  Robert  of  Normandy  and 
Robert  of  Flanders,  blockaded  it  from  the  north.  On  the  fifth  day 
a  desperate  attempt  was  made  to  storm  the  walls,  with  a  single  lad- 
der and  with  no  siege  instruments.  It  was  no  wonder  that  in  spite 
of  all  their  efforts  the  assailants  should  be  beaten  back  and  hurled 
from  the  ramparts.  Thirty  days  more  passed  awa}',  while  Gaston 
of  Beam  was  busily  occupied  in  directing  the  construction  of  siege 
engines  of  timber  brought  from  the  woods  of  Shechem.  During  the 
whole  of  this  time  the  besiegers  were  in  the  greatest  distress  from 
luck  of  water.  All  the  cisterns  and  receptacles  of  an}'  kind  had 
been  carefully  destroyed  by  the  enemy,  whose  horsemen  harassed 
or  cut  off  the  parties  of  Christians  who  were  sent  about  the  country 
to  search  for  it.     Nor  was  the  discipline  of  the  camp  by  any  means 


2IO  GREAT   BATTLES    OF   ALL    NATIONS  * 

what  it  should  be;  and  the  phantom  of  Adhemar  of  Puy  appeared 
it  was  said,  to  denounce  the  license  which  was  provoking  the  divine 
judgments.  But  if  there  was  wild  riot  in  some  quarters,  there  was 
devotion  and  enthusiasm  in  others.  Tancred  generously  made  up 
his  quarrel  with  Bohemond,  and,  like  the  Levites  round  the  walls 
of  Jericho,  the  clergy  moved  round  the  city  in  procession,  singing 
hymns  and  followed  by  the  laity.  The  Saracens,  it  is  said,  insulted 
them  from  the  walls  by  throwing  dirt  upon  crucifixes.  On  the  sec- 
ond day  of  the  final  assault,  when  it  seemed  that,  in  spite  of  almost 
superhuman  efforts,  the  crusaders  must  fail,  a  horseman  was  seen, 
or  supposed  to  be  seen,  waving  his  shield  on  Mount  Olivet.  "St. 
George  the  Martyr  has  again  come  to  help  us,"  shouted  Godfrey, 
and  the  cry,  taken  up  and  carried  along  the  ranks,  banished  every 
feehng  of  weariness  and  sent  them  forth  with  overwhelming 
strength  for  the  supreme  effort.  It  was  Friday;  and  at  the  mo- 
ment in  the  afternoon  when  the  last  cry  was  uttered  by  the  Saviour 
on  His  cross,  Letold  of  Toumay,  it  is  said,  stood  on  the  walls  of 
Jerusalem,  followed  first  by  his  brother  Engelbert  and  then  by 
Godfrey.  The  gate  of  St.  Stephen  was  stormed  by  Tancred,  the 
Provengals  climbed  up  the  ramparts  by  ladders,  and  the  city  was 
in  the  hands  of  the  Christians.  So  terrible,  it  is  said,  was  the 
carnage  which  followed  that  the  horses  of  the  crusaders  who  rode 
up  to  the  Mosque  of  Omar  were  knee-deep  in  the  stream  of  blood. 
Infants  were  seized  by  their  feet  and  dashed  against  the  walls  or 
whirled  over  the  battlements,  while  the  Jews  were  all  burned  alive 
in  their  synagogue.  In  the  midst  of  these  horrors  Godfrey  entered 
the  Church  of  the  Sepulcher,  clothed  in  a  robe  of  pure  white,  but 
barefooted  as  well  as  bareheaded,  and  knelt  at  the  tomb  to  offer  his 
thanksgiving  for  the  divine  goodness  which  had  suffered  them  to 
realize  the  yearning  of  their  hearts.  In  the  profound  enthusiasm 
and  devotion  of  the  moment  his  followers  beheld  the  dead  take  part 
in  the  solemn  ritual,  and  heard  the  voice  of  Adhemar  rejoicing  in 
the  prayers  and  resolutions  of  penitence  offered  by  the  prostrate 
warriors  of  the  cross.  Among  the  living,  too,  there  were  those  who 
called  forth  the  deepest  gratitude ;  and  the  vast  throng  fell  at  the 
feet  of  the  hermit  Peter,  who  thus  saw  the  consummation  of  the 
enterprise  which  was  mainly  his  work,  and  of  whom  after  the  com- 


(211.) 


212  GREAT   BATTLES    OF    ALL   NATIONS 

pletion  of  his  task  we  hear  no  more.     On  the  next  day  the  horrors 
of  that  which  had  preceded  it  were  deUberately  repeated  on  a  larger 
scale.     Tancred  had  given  a  guarantee  of  safety  to  three  hundred 
captives.     In  spite  of  his  indignant  protests  these  were  all  brought 
out  and  killed;  and  a  massacre  followed  in  which  the  bodies  of 
men,   women,    and  children   were   hacked   and   hewn   until   their 
fragments  lay  tossed  together  in  heaps.     The  work  of  slaughter 
ended,  the  streets  of  the  city  were  washed  by  Saracen  prisoners. 
So  ended  the  first  and  the  most  important  of  the  crusades.     Its 
history  shows  us  clearly  the  nature  of  these  religious  wars  and  the 
mode  in  which  they  were  carried  on.     Those  which  follow  may  be 
more  briefly  noticed,  as  they  tend  generally  to  assume  more  and 
more  of  a  political  character.     The  first  crusade  had  to  all  appear- 
ance fully  attained  its  object.     Godfrey  was  really  king  of  Jerusa- 
lem, although  he  would  not  bear  the  title  in  the  city  where  his 
Lord  had  worn  the  crown  of  thorns.     His  reign  lasted  barely  one 
year,   and  this  year  was  signalized  less  by  his  victory  over  the 
Fatimite  caliph  of  Egypt  than  by  the  promulgation  of  the  code  of 
laws  known  as  the  Assize  of  Jerusalem.     These  laws  embodied  the 
main  principles  of  feudalism,  while  they  added  a  new  feature  in 
the  judicial  courts,  the  king  presiding  in  the  court  of  the  barons, 
his  viscount  in  that  of   the   burgesses.     On   Godfrey's  death  his 
brother  Baldwin  was  summoned  from   his  principality  of  Edessa, 
1100,  and  crowned  king  by  the  Patriarch  Daimbert.     During  his 
reign  of  eighteen  years  most  of  the  old  crusading  chiefs  passed 
away.     Stephen  of  Chartres  was  slain  at  Ramlah  in  1101.     Four 
years  later  Raymond  died  on  the  seacoast.     In  1112  Tancred  was 
cut  off  in  the  prime  of  manhood,  three  years  after  Bohemond  had 
ended  his  stormy  career  at  Antioch.     The  Emperor  Alexius,  the 
only  man  who  had  derived  lasting  benefit  from  these  expeditions, 
outlived  them  all.     If  his  empire  was  to  last,  the  Turks  must  be 
drawn  off  from  the  nearer  regions  of  Asia  Minor.     This  result  the 
crusades  accomplished,  and  thus   prolonged  the  existence  of  the 
empire  for  three  centuries  and  a  half.     The  second  successor  of 
Godfrey  was    his    kinsman,  Baldwin   du  Bourg,  in  whose  reign, 
1118-31,  TjTe  became  the  seat  of  a  Latin  archbishopric.     After 
Baldwin  TL,  the  uneventful  reign  of  Fulk  of  Anjou  (1131-44)  was 


THE    CRUSADES  213 

followed  by  that  of  his  son,  Baltlwin  III.,  a  boy  thirteen  years  of 
age  (1144-G'2),  in  whose  days  the  fall  of  Edessa  called  forth  again 
the  enterprise  of  the  West.  Of  this  second  crusade  St.  Bernard 
was  the  apostle,  as  the  hermit  Peter  had  been  of  the  first.  In  the 
council  of  Vezelai,  1146,  Louis  VII.,  the  French  king,  put  on  the 
blood-red  cross,  and  his  example  was  reluctantly  followed  some 
months  later  by  the  Emperor  Conrad.  The  story  of  this  expedition 
brings  before  us  a  long  series  of  disasters.  Conrad  lost  thousands 
in  an  attempted  march  across  Asia  Minor;  Louis  took  ship  at  At- 
taleia  and  succeeded  in  making  his  way  to  Jerusalem.  Conrad  at 
length  reached  Ptolemais ;  and  the  two  sovereigns,  abandoning  the 
project  of  rescuing  Edessa,  resolved  to  turn  their  arms  against 
Damascus,  1148.  The  siege  was  a  miserable  failure,  brought 
about,  it  is  said,  by  the  treachery  of  the  barons  of  Palestine. 
Bernard  himself  was  for  the  moment  overwhelmed  by  the  com- 
pleteness of  the  catastrophe ;  but  the  con\'iction  of  the  reality  of  his 
own  mission  soon  assured  him  that  the  fault  lay  in  the  sinfulness 
of  the  pilgrims — an  idea  which,  having  fixed  itself  in  some  minds, 
had  its  issue  in  the  pathetic  and  awful  tragedies  called  the  Chil- 
dren's Crusades.  None  but  innocent  hands,  it  was  thought,  could 
accomplish  the  work  of  conquest  in  the  Holy  Land;  and  in  12 r2 
the  great  experiment  was  tried,  with  thirty-  thousand  children,  so 
the  tale  went,  under  the  boy  Stephen,  and  twent}'  thousand  Ger- 
man boys  antl  girls  under  the  peasant  lad  Nicholas,  to  end  in  death 
by  sea  or  on  land,  or  in  the  more  fearful  horrors  of  the  slave- 
market.  For  the  present  this  notion  was  only  in  embrj-o;  and  the 
monk  John  had  more  success  in  reviving  old  feelings  hj  declaring 
that  the  places  of  the  fallen  angels  had  been  filled  by  the  spirits  of 
those  who  had  died  as  champions  of  the  cross  in  Bernard's  crusade. 
In  1162  Baldwin  III.  died  at  the  early  age  of  thirty-three.  The 
great  aim  of  his  brother  Amalric,  who  succeeded  him,  1162,  was 
to  obtain  possession  of  Egypt,  and  thus  to  prevent  Noureddin,  the 
sidtan  of  Aleppo,  from  establishing  himself  in  a  country  which 
would  enable  him  to  attack  the  Latin  kingdom  from  the  south,  as 
lie  already  could  from  the  north.  It  nvAj  be  said  that  nothing  but 
his  own  greed  for  money  stood  in  the  way  of  his  success;  and  Sala- 
din,  the  nephew  of  Noureddin,  was  thus  enabled  to  rise  to  power 


214  GREAT    BATTLES    OF   ALL    NATIONS 

in  Egypt,  and  finally,  by  setting  aside  the  Fatimite  caliph,  to  put 
an  end  to  a  schism  which  had  lasted  two  hundred  years.  Nor  was 
this  all.  Amalric's  son  and  successor,  Baldwin  IV.,  was  a  leper, 
who,  being  obliged  by  his  disease  to  appoint  another  as  his  dele- 
gate, fixed  on  Guy  of  Lusignan,  the  husband  of  his  sister  Sibylla. 
For  the  time  the  arrangement  came  to  naught;  but  when,  in  1186, 
the  death  of  Baldwin  IV.  was  followed  in  a  few  months  by  that  of 
Baldwin  V.,  the  infant  son  of  Sibylla  by  her  first  marriage,  Guy 
managed  to  establish  himself  by  right  of  his  wife  as  King  of  Jeru- 
salem. Over  his  kingdom  the  storm  was  now  ready  to  burst.  The 
army  of  Saladin  assailed  Tiberias ;  and  Raymond,  Count  of  Trip- 
olis,  the  son  of  RajTnond  of  Toulouse,  although  he  had  refused 
to  own  his  allegiance  to  Guy,  hastened  to  Jerusalem  to  beg  the 
king  to  confine  himself  to  a  defensive  warfare,  which  could  not 
fail  to  be  crowned  with  success.  His  advice  was  rejected ;  and  the 
fatal  battle  of  Tiberias,  1187,  almost  destroyed  the  army  which 
should  have  defended  the  capital,  while  the  true  cross  fell  into  the 
hands  of  the  conquerors.  Against  the  comparatively  defenseless 
city  Saladin  now  advanced ;  but  he  pledged  himself  that,  if  it  were 
surrendered,  he  would  provide  for  the  inhabitants  new  homes  in 
Syria,  and  would  supply  them  with  the  money  which  they  might 
need.  His  offer  was  refused,  and  Saladin  made  a  vow  that  he 
would  take  ample  vengeance.  But  when  at  length  the  issue  was 
seen  to  be  inevitable  and  the  besieged  threw  themselves  on  his 
mercy,  Saladin  agreed  that  the  nobles  and  fighting  men  should  be 
sent  to  Tyre,  and  that  the  Latin  inhabitants  should  be  reduced  to 
slavery,  only  if  they  failed  to  pay  a  ransom  fixed  according  to  age 
and  sex.  Having  entered  the  city,  Saladin  advanced  to  the  Mosque 
of  Omar.  As  he  approached,  the  cross,  which  still  flashed  on  its 
summit,  was  hurled  to  the  ground  and  trailed  through  the  mire. 
Thus  fell  the  Latin  kingdom  eighty-eight  years  after  Godfrey  be- 
came the  Defender  of  the  Holy  Sepulcher.  At  no  time  had  it 
exhibited  any  signs  of  real  stability.  Resting  on  the  rule  that  no 
faith  was  to  be  kept  with  the  unbeliever,  it  justified  treachery;  it 
recognized  no  title  to  property  except  in  the  Christians,  and  the 
temptation  thus  held  out  to  robbery  went  far  to  demoralize  the 
people.     It  kept  up  constant  irritation  by  petty  forays,  while  it  did 


THE   CRUSADES 


215 


little  to  promote  military  science  or  discipline.  Its  leaders  were  for 
the  most  part  devoid  of  statesmanship.  As  banded  together  rather 
for  a  religious  than  a  political  purpose,  they  could  ^vithdraw  from 
the  enterprise  as  soon  as  they  had  fulfilled  their  vows,  and  thus 
the  cohesion  needed  for  its  permanent  success  was  unattainable. 
More  than  all,  it  had  to  put  up  with,  if  it  did  not  sanction,  the 
growth  of  societies,  each  of  which  claimed  independent  jurisdiction 
over  its  ovm  members.  The  great  military  orders  of  the  Hospital 
and  Temple  had  come  into  existence  as  fraternities  devoted  to 
works  of  mercy  in  behalf  of  poor  pilgrims.  But  under  the  condi- 
tions of  their  sojourn  in  Palestine  it  was  necessary  to  bear  arms ; 
the  bearing  of  arms  involved  the  need  of  discipline ;  and  the  mili- 
tary disciphne  of  a  brotherhood,  animated  by  monastic  enthusiasm, 
became  formidable.  These  orders  were  further  strengthened  by 
privileges  and  immunities  conferred,  some  by  the  kings  of  Jerusa- 
lem, some  by  the  popes.  Their  freedom  from  tithe  brought  them 
into  direct  antagonism  with  the  clergy,  and  the  clergy  in  their  turn 
complained  that  these  orders  gave  shelter  to  excommunicated  per- 
sons, while  the  fiercest  enmity  of  the  Templar  was  reserved  for  his 
brother  of  the  order  of  the  Hospital  of  St.  John.  On  a  kingdom 
composed  of  such  elements  as  these  the  old  curse  of  the  house 
divided  against  itself  cannot  fail  to  descend. 

It  may  have  been  something  like  the  insight  of  a  statesman 
which  led  King  Amalric  to  fix  his  thoughts  on  the  conquest  of 
Egypt,  as  the  means  not  only  of  preventing  the  co-operation  of  hos- 
tile powers  to  the  north  and  south  of  the  Latin  kingdom,  but  of 
opening  a  country  of  vast  resources  to  the  merchant  and  the  trader. 
There  can  be  no  doubt  that  these  considerations  prompted  the 
Lateran  Council,  1179,  to  declare  that  the  first  object  of  every 
crusade  should  be  the  conquest  of  Damietta;  but  with  this  determi- 
nation these  enterprises  ceased  to  be  strictly  crusades,  and  the  old 
spirit  is  seen  again  only  in  the  royal  saint,  Louis  IX.  For  the  time 
the  fall  of  Jerusalem  seemed  to  waken  again  the  impulse  which 
had  stiiTcd  the  hearts  of  Godfrey  and  Tancred.  On  the  plain 
between  Gisors  and  Trie  the  pleadings  of  AYilliam,  archbishop  of 
Tyre,  prevailed  with  Henry  II.  of  England  and  Philip  Augustus 
of  France  to  assume  the  cross,  1188.     Having  thus  far  shown  a 


2i6  GREAT   BATTLES    OF    ALL   NATIONS 

marked  reluctance  to  the  undertaking,  Henry  may  now  have  really 
meant  to  fulfill  his  promise ;  but  the  quarrels  and  treachery  of  his 
sons  interposed  a  fatal  hinderance  and  soon  brought  him  to  his 
grave.  For  his  son  and  successor,  Richard,  the  idea  of  rescuing 
the  Holy  City  from  the  Turk  had  an  irresistible  attraction,  and 
his  whole  mind  was  bent  on  raising  money  for  the  purpose.  This 
task  done,  he  met  the  French  king  at  Vezelai,  where  forty-four 
years  ago  Louis  VII.  had  listened  to  the  vehement  eloquence  of 
Bernard.  The  two  sovereigns  made  their  wa}'  to  Sicily,  while  the 
Emperor  Frederick  I.  (Barbarossa)  was  advancing  with  his  host 
to  Constantinople.  Frederick  himself  was  drowned  in  a  Cilician 
river,  1190,  and  of  those  whom  he  had  brought  across  the  Bos- 
phorus  not  a  tenth,  it  is  said,  reached  Antioch.  The  efforts  of  the 
Latins  of  Palestine  were  now  directed  against  Acre,  which  had  been 
besieged  for  two  years  before  Richard  and  Philip  set  foot  on  the 
Holy  Land.  The  former  was  prostrated  with  fever;  but  his  fiery 
zeal  proved  stronger  than  his  sickness,  and  Saladin  was  compelled, 
1191,  to  assent  to  a  compact  which  bound  him  to  surrender  the  true 
cross,  and  to  give  hostages  for  the  payment  of  two  hundred  thou- 
sand pieces  of  gold  within  forty  days.  The  money  was  not  paid 
in  time  and  the  hostages,  numbering  three  thousand  or  more,  were 
all,  it  is  said,  slaughtered  on  the  summit  of  a  hill  from  which  the 
tragedy  might  be  seen  in  the  camp  of  Saladin.  The  sequel  of  the 
story  tells  us  of  battles  won  and  lost  to  little  purpose.  The  victory 
of  Richard  at  Azotus  opened  the  road  to  Jaffa  and  Jerusalem,  and 
the  army  had  advanced  as  far  as  Ramlah,  when  the  men  of  Pisa, 
with  the  knights  of  the  Hospital  and  the  Temple,  insisted  that  the 
troops  could  never  be  kept  together  after  the  recovery  of  Jerusalem, 
and  thus  that  its  re-conquest  would  reallj'  be  fatal  to  the  crusade. 
In  June,  1192,  Richard  again  led  his  forces  toward  the  Holy  City, 
and  was  again  foiled  by  the  lack  of  a  commissariat  and  the  destruc- 
tion of  all  the  wells  and  cisterns,  which  for  miles  around  had  been 
shattered  by  the  enemy.  His  prowess  was  signally  shown  in  the 
rehef  of  Jaffa;  but  in  the  issue  he  obtained  from  Saladin  simply  a 
truce  for  three  years  and  eight  months,  which  insured  to  pilgrims 
the  right  of  entering  Jerusalem  untaxed ;  and  thus,  leaving  the 
Holy  Land,  he  set  out  on  the  homeward  journey,  which  was  to 


THE    CRUSADES  217 

be  interrupted  by  a  long  captivitj'  in  a  Tyrolese  castle  as  the 
prisoner  of  Henry  VI.  Although  this  third  crusade  had  been 
marked  by  the  woful  waste  of  splendid  opportunities,  it  had  still 
secured  to  the  Christians  the  possession  of  a  long  strip  of  coast, 
bounded  by  two  important  cities,  which  might  serve  as  a  base  of 
operations  in  future  enterprises,  while  it  had  also  done  much  to 
neutralize  the  results  which  Saladin  had  looked  for  from  his  earlier 
victories. 

The  fourth  crusade  may  be  dismissed  in  a  few  words.  It  was 
an  enterprise  set  on  foot  by  the  Knights  of  St.  John,  1193,  seconded 
by  Pope  Celestine  III.,  in  hopes  of  getting  rid  of  the  Emperor 
Henry  VI.,  the  son  of  Barbarossa,  who  claimed  the  island  of  Sicily, 
and  encouraged  by  Henry  as  a  means  for  promoting  his  own  de- 
signs. Henry  had  no  intention  of  going  on  the  errand  himself; 
but  his  barons,  with  their  followers,  defeated  the  Turks  between 
Tyre  and  Sidon,  1196,  recovered  Jaffa,  which  had  been  taken  after 
Richard's  departure,  obtairfed  possession  of  Berytus,  and  lost  all 
that  they  had  gained  b}^  their  folly  and  disunion  in  the  siege  of  the 
castle  of  Thoron,  1197.  Jaffa  was  again  taken  by  the  Saracens; 
and  the  Latin  kingdom  became  little  more  than  a  title  with  which 
Isabella,  the  sister  of  Baldwin  IV.,  linked  that  of  Cj'prus  on  her 
marriage  with  Amalric  of  Lusignan,  who  had  succeeded  his  brother 
Guy  as  sovereign  of  that  island. 

The  fifth  crusade  was  an  undertaking  of  vastly  greater  impor- 
tance. Innocent  III.,  who  now  sat  in  St.  Peter's  chair,  was  a  man 
of  incomparably  loftier  genius  than  Urban  II.,  and  he  was  raised 
to  the  pontifical  throne,  1198,  at  a  time  when  the  European  world 
generally  seemed  in  a  state  of  dissolution.  He  saw  at  once  how, 
in  such  a  state  of  things,  the  crusades  had  served,  and  would  serve, 
to  promote  the  papal  power.  But  if  the  popes  had  thus  the  means 
and  the  justification  for  interfering  in  the  affairs  of  every  kingdom, 
and  acquired  the  power  of  demanding  contributions,  levying  sub- 
sidies, and  dispensing  with  or  enforcing  vows,  the  mode  in  which 
the  revenues  so  raised  had  been  administered  had  roused  a  wide 
and  deep  suspicion,  which  might  more  than  counterbalance  all  the 
gains.  Hence  it  came  to  pass  that  Innocent,  even  in  the  plenitude 
of  his  spiritual  pretensions,  was  compelled  to  defend  himself  against 


218  GREAT    BATTLES    OF    ALL    NATIONS 

charges  of  personal  corruption ;  and  when  in  Fulk  of  JSTeuill}'  he 
had  found  an  apostle  not  less  devoted  and  only  less  eloquent  than 
Bernard,  the  same  suspicion  came  in  to  chill  enthusiasm  and  lead 
men  to  criticise  rather  than  to  worship.  Nevertheless,  a  goodly 
company  prepared  for  the  great  work  was  at  length  brought  to- 
gether, 1201,  the  most  prominent  among  the  leaders  being  Simon 
of  Montfoi-t,  Walter  of  Brienne,  and  Geoffrey  of  Villehardouin, 
the  historian  of  the  crusade.  But  the  story  of  previous  crusades 
had  at  least  opened  men's  eyes  to  the  fearful  risks  of  a  march 
across  Asia  Minor,  and  the  army  wholly  lacked  the  means  of  trans- 
port by  sea.  In  this  strait  whither  could  they  betake  themselves 
but  to  Venice?  For  eighty-five  thousand  silver  marks  the  doge, 
Henry  Dandolo,  covenanted  to  convey  them  to  the  Hoi}'-  Land ; 
but  when  the  fleet  was  ready,  fifty-one  thousand  marks  onl}"  were 
forthcoming,  although  the  counts  of  Flanders  and  St.  Pol  had  sold 
all  their  plate  and  strained  their  credit  to  the  utmost.  To  the 
amazement  of  the  crusaders  the  doge  announced  that  the  thirty- 
four  thousand  marks  would  be  remitted  if  they  would  conquer  for 
the  republic  the  town  of  Zara,  which  had  been  unjustly  taken  from 
her  by  the  Hungarian  king.  To  Venice  at  this  time  came  Alexius, 
the  son  of  the  Byzantine  emperor  Isaac  Angelus  whom  his  brother 
Alexius  had  blinded  and  thrust  into  a  dungeon.  The  pleadings  of 
the  3'ounger  Alexius  may  have  wakened  in  the  mind  of  Dandolo 
some  thought  of  what  was  soon  to  be  achieved  at  Constantinople ; 
but  for  the  present  he  stuck  to  his  bargain  about  Zara  with  inflexi- 
ble pertinacity.  Zara  was  taken  November  15,  1202;  and  the  cru- 
saders expressed  their  wish  to  hasten  at  once  to  the  Holy  Land. 
Dandolo  replied  that  tbe  new  conquest  must  be  guarded  against 
the  king  of  Hungary,  and  that  famine  in  "Western  Asia  rendered 
the  eastward  voyage  during  the  winter  impracticable.  Envoys 
from  Byzantium  were  also  earnest  in  insisting  that  the  ends  of  the 
crusade  would  be  best  promoted  by  placing  Alexius  on  the  imperial 
throne,  and  that  the  crusaders'  mission  was  rather  the  establish- 
ment of  right  everywhere  than  the  wresting  of  a  particular  spot 
from  the  grasp  of  the  Infidel,  They  added  that  the  first  care  of 
Alexius  would  be  to  bring  the  Eastern  Church  into  submission  to 
the  Roman  See,  while  his  second  would  be  to  provide  four  hundred 


THE   CRUSADES  219 

thousand  marks  for  the  service  of  the  crusaders,  and  to  accompany 
them  himseh"  to  the  Holy  Land.  On  hearing  these  tidings  Inno- 
cent professed  amazement  and  indignation ;  but  Dandolo  was  re- 
solved that  neither  threats  nor  interdicts  should  interfere  with  the 
execution  of  his  will.  The  Venetian  fleet  at  length,  1203,  reached 
Scutari,  where  they  received  a  message  from  the  usurper,  Alexius, 
promising  help,  if,  diu-ing  their  stay,  they  would  do  his  subjects  no 
harm.  The  reply  was  a  summons  to  come  down  from  his  throne; 
and  the  appeal  lay  only  to  the  sword.  With  ordinary  courage 
Alexius  must  have  carried  the  day ;  by  giving  the  order  for  retreat 
he  sealed  his  own  doom,  and  on  his  flight  from  the  city  the  blinded 
Isaac  Angelus,  drawn  from  his  prison,  was  again  wrapped  in  the 
imperial  robes,  and  his  son  Alexius  raised  to  share  his  dignity. 
But  fresh  disappointments  were  in  store  for  the  crusaders.  Alexius 
gave  them  to  understand  that  the  winter  must  be  spent  in  Constan- 
tinople; and  Dandolo  effectually  supported  him  by  saying  that 
until  the  spring  the  Venetian  fleet  should  not  move.  In  the  mean- 
time feuds  and  factions  were  doing  their  old  woik  in  Constanti- 
nople. The  young  Alexius,  offended  at  the  plaiimess  of  speech 
which  told  him  that  solemn  compacts  must  be  adhered  to,  sent 
a  squadron  of  fire  ships  against  the  Venetians.  The  project  failed; 
and  in  a  httle  while  his  throne  was  fiUed  by  Alexius  Ducas,  called 
Mourzoufle,  from  the  darkness  and  shagginess  of  his  eyebrows. 
Dandolo  insisted  on  the  restoration  of  Alexius ;  and  Mourzoufle  had 
him  killed  in  prison.  This  deed  was  held  to  justify  the  crusaders 
in  placing  a  Latin  emperor  on  the  Byzantine  throne ;  and  this  task 
was  achieved  after  a  second  siege,  1204,  which  was  followed  by 
riot  and  carnage  altogether  disgraceful  to  Western  chivalry.  In- 
nocent III.  might  well  ask  how  the  return  of  the  Greek  Church 
to  ecclesiastical  unity  was  to  be  looked  for  when  they  saw  in  the 
Latins  only  works  of  darkness  for  which  they  might  justly  loathe 
them  worse  than  dogs.  The  committee  of  twelve— half  French, 
half  Venetian — charged  with  the  election  of  an  emperor,  fixed  their 
choice  on  Dandolo ;  but  the  old  man,  who  had  wellnigh  completed 
his  tale  of  a  hundred  winters,  cared  httle  for  the  office,  while  the 
Venetians  had  no  wish  to  see  one  man  at  once  doge  and  emperor. 
Two  only  remained  who  could  well  bo  made  competitors  for  the 


220  GREAT    BATTLES    OF    ALL    NATIONS 

throne — the  Marquis  of  Montferrat,  and  Baldwin  of  Flanders.  The 
choice  of  the  electors  fell  on  the  latter,  who  Avas  a  descendant  of 
Charles  the  Great  and  a  cousin  of  the  French  king;  and  Baldwin 
was  crowned  by  the  papal  legate  in  the  gi*eat  church  of  Justinian. 

The  crusaders  had  thus  done  great  things,  although  not  precisely 
the  things  which  at  the  outset  Innocent  would  have  had  them  do. 
The  old  schism  of  the  Greek  Church  had  been  brought  to  an  end, 
and  the  dominion  of  the  Holy  See  vastly  enlarged.  But  the  bene- 
fits secured  to  Venice  were  at  least  more  enduring.  The  conquest 
of  Zara  was  the  first  step  only  toward  the  establishment  of  a  great 
maritime  empire ;  the  factories  at  Pera  were  exposed  only  to  attacks 
by  sea,  and  here  her  ships  could  guard  them.  Her  settlements  were 
seen  in  the  richest  islands  of  the  -^gean ;  and  this  development  of 
her  greatness  seemed  to  foster  a  spirit  of  independence  which  Inno- 
cent III.  regarded  with  instinctive  suspicion.  It  was  the  fault  of 
the  Venetians,  he  said,  that  the  whole  enterprise  had  not  been 
brought  already  to  a  brilliant  consummation.  AVhat  might  not 
an  army  which  had  done  so  much  at  Zara  and  B5"zantium  have 
achieved  in  the  Holy  Land? 

The  Latin  Empire  thus  set  up  was  not  more  durable  than  the 
kingdom  of  Jerusalem.  Baldmn,  as  emperor,  was  really  nothing- 
more  than  a  chief  among  his  peers ;  and  although  he  thus  lacked 
the  authority  of  the  sovereigns  whose  title  he  bore,  he  attempted 
tasks  which  even  the}^  must  have  failed  to  accomplish.  By  the 
crusaders  the  Greek  people  were  regarded  as  barbarians  or  heathens 
and  their  clergy  as  the  ministers  of  a  false  faith.  The  former  were 
excluded  from  all  ofl&ces  and  dignities;  the  Assize  of  Jerusalem 
was  substituted  for  the  Code  of  Justinian;  and  no  native  was 
allowed  to  take  ps»rt  in  the  administration  of  this  law.  Such 
changes  could  portend  nothing  but  future  e^dl;  nor  were  other 
signs  of  speedy  downfall  wanting.  The  conquerors  began  to  quar- 
rel, and  Baldwin  found  himself  at  open  war  with  Boniface  of  Mont- 
ferrat, now  lord  of  Thessalonica.  Like  Boniface,  the  other  chiefs 
of  the  crusade  had  been  splendidl}^  reward-^d.  The  Count  of  Blois 
received  the  dukedom  of  Nice;  and  the  Venetian  Daudolo  became 
the  sovereign  of  Romania,  with  Geoffrey  of  Villehardouin  as  his 
marshal.     But  the  power  of  the  Eastern  Caesars  was  rather  divided 


THE   CRUSADES  221 

than  crushed.  New  empires  sprung  up  at  Nice,  Trebizond,  and 
Durazza;  and  the  Latins  encountered  an  enemy  still  more  formi- 
dable in  the  Bulgarian  Calo- John,  who  ordered  a  massacre  of  the 
Latins  in  Thrace,  1205.  Eager  for  vengeance,  Baldwin  marched 
against  him ;  but  he  was  taken  prisoner,  and  the  army  was  saved 
only  by  the  skill  and  heroism  of  Villehardouin,  who  has  left  us  a 
narrative  of  the  campaign.  The  liberation  of  Baldwin  was  de- 
manded by  the  pope;  the  reply  was  that  he  had  died.  The  cause 
was  never  known;  and  for  a  year  his  brother  Henry,  who  was 
elected  to  succeed  him,  refused  to  take  the  title  of  emperor.  The 
ten  years  of  Henry's  reign,  1206-16,  stand  out  in  pleasant  contrast 
with  the  lives  of  the  emperors  who  were  to  follow  him.  Henry  at 
the  least  saw  that  his  brother  had  made  a  fatal  mistake  in  confin- 
ing the  work  of  government  exclusively  to  the  Latins.  Greeks 
were  again  admitted  to  public  offices  and  honors ;  to  the  imposition 
of  a  foreign  liturgy  or  of  a  foreign  dogma  Henry  offered  a  passive 
resistance,  while  his  throne,  placed  on  the  right  hand  of  the  patri- 
arch's chair  in  the  church  of  San  eta  Sophia,  was  significant  of  his 
thoughts  on  the  question  of  papal  supremacy.  With  his  death  the 
male  line  of  the  counts  of  Flanders  came  to  an  end.  In  a  fatal 
moment  the  offer  of  his  crown  was  accepted  by  Peter  of  Courtenay, 
Count  of  Auxerre,  the  husband  of  Henr3''s  sister  Yolande.  Like 
Baldwin,  Peter  fell  into  the  hands  of  his  enemies  on  his  eastward 
journey,  and  died  without  seeing  the  city  of  which  he  was  the  sov- 
ereign, 1218.  During  the  reign  of  his  successor  Robert,  the  second 
son  of  Yolande,  the  range  of  Latin  dominion  was  rapidly  narrowed. 
When  Robert  died,  Baldwin,  Yolande's  youngest  son,  was  still  a 
child  only  seven  years  old ;  and  John  of  Brienne,  the  titidar  king 
of  Jerusalem,  was  raised  to  the  imperial  throne.  At  length,  after 
his  death,  the  second  Baldwin  became  emperor;  but  the  twenty- 
five  years  of  his  reign  he  spent  chiefly  in  distant  lands,  begging 
for  help  in  money.  In  vain  the  pope  proclaimed  a  crusade  in  his 
behalf.  The  end  was  drawing  nigh.  The  envoys  sent  bj-  him  to 
Michael  Palseologus  were  bidden  to  tell  their  master  that  he  might 
have  peace  on  the  payment  of  an  annual  tribute  amounting  to  the 
whole  revenue  from  customs  and  excise  at  Constantinople.  A  few 
years  later,  12G1,  Baldwin  was  driven  from  the  imperial  city,  and 


222  GREAT   BATTLES    OF    ALL   NATIONS 

spent  the  rest  of  his  days  wandering  over  Europe  and  telling  the 
story  of  his  misfortunes.  So  fell  the  Latin  empire,  having  dealt 
the  death-blow  to  the  hopes  which  were  dearest  to  the  heart  of 
Popo  Innocent  III.  The  reconcilement  of  the  Eastern  with  the 
Western  Church  would,  he  knew,  be  best  achieved  by  a  close  union 
between  the  subjects  of  the  Eastern  and  the  "Western  Empires. 
The  policj"  of  the  Latin  emperors  had  opened  a  gulf  of  separation 
which  has  not  to  this  day  been  closed,  and  had  converted  the  dis- 
like and  suspicion  of  former  generations  into  vehement  jealousy  or 
furious  hatred. 

When  the  Latin  empire  fell,  the  era  of  the  crusades  was  fast 
drawing  to  its  close ;  and  of  the  expeditions  which  had  been  under- 
taken before  its  downfall  one  only  was  prompted  by  the  spirit 
which  had  animated  the  hearers  of  Urban  II.  at  Clermont.  The 
conditions  of  the  conflict  were  widely  changed;  and  the  course 
adopted  by  the  Christian  leaders  showed  their  conviction  that  the 
surest  road  to  Jerusalem  was  by  way  of  Egypt.  Again  and  again 
this  plan  might  have  been  carried  out  successfully ;  and  again  and 
again  the  crusaders  threw  the  chance  away.  Thus,  in  the  year 
1219,  the  Syrian  Sultan  Coradin  had  offered  peace  to  the  besiegers 
of  Damietta,  pledging  himself  to  surrender  not  merely  the  true 
cross,  but  the  whole  of  Palestine,  with  the  exception  of  two  forts  for 
the  protection  of  pilgrims  bound  to  Mecca.  The  offer  was  rejected ; 
Damietta  was  taken  and  plundered;  and  in  the  spring  of  1220  the 
army  insisted  on  attempting  the  conquest  of  Egypt.  The  Sultan 
Kameel  offered  them  terms  as  favorable  as  those  of  Coradin,  and 
those  were  also  refused.  The  Nile  rose;  and  the  Egyptians  inun- 
dated the  camp  of  their  enemies,  who  in  their  turn  were  compelled 
to  sue  for  peace  by  surrendering  Damietta.  This  disaster  made 
the  Pope  Honorius  III.,  who  had  been  elected  on  the  death  of 
Innocent,  still  more  anxious  for  the  fulfillment  of  the  crusading 
vow  which  had  long  since  been  taken  by  the  Emperor  Frederick 
II.,  the  grandson  of  Barbarossa.  In  a  conference  at  Ferentino, 
1223,  it  was  agreed  that  Frederick  should  marry  lolante,  the 
daughter  of  the  titular  king  of  Jerusalem,  and  thus  go  forth  as 
his  heir  to  recover  his  own  inheritance.  Two  years  were  allowed 
for  preparation ;   but  it  was  found  necessary  at  San  Germano  to 


THE   CRUSADES  223 

grant  two  more,  AVhen  at  length  Frederick  married  lolante  in 
1225,  he  declared  that  his  father-in-law,  John  of  Brienne,  was  king 
only  by  right  of  his  wife,  on  whose  death  the  title  had  passed  to 
her  daughter,  and  that  thus  Frederick  was  now  king  of  Naples, 
Sicily,  and  Jerusalem.  Still  the  months  rolled  away  and  the  vow 
of  Frederick  remained  unfulfilled.  Honorius  had  already  been 
obliged  to  remonstrate;  his  successor,  Gregory  IX.,  1227,  found 
himself  constrained  to  use  sharper  weapons.  The  contrast  between 
the  two  men  was  marked  indeed.  In  Gregory  IX.,  chosen  pope 
at  the  age  of  fourscore  years,  the  ascetic  seventy  of  Gregory  the 
Great  was  united  with  the  iron  will  of  Gregory  VII.  Frederick 
was  a  young  man  of  thirty-three,  born  and  bred  in  Sicily,  steeped 
in  the  luxurj-  of  a  gorgeous  and  voluptuous  court,  where  the 
charms  of  art  and  the  refinements  of  hterature  and  philosophy  in 
some  measures  redeemed  the  sensuous  indulgence  at  which  Gregory 
would  have  stood  aghast.  The  pope  had  indeed  enough  to  disquiet 
him  in  the  reports  which  came  from  this  Sicihan  paradise.  Fred- 
erick was  spending  his  days  among  a  motley  company  gathered 
from  all  the  countries  of  Europe — a  company  in  which  Christians, 
Jews,  and  Saracens  mingled  freely.  A  society  such  as  this  could 
exist  only  in  an  atmosphere  of  tolerance,  and  tolerance  in  Gregory's 
eyes  was  only  another  name  for  indifference,  and  indifference  of 
heresy.  The  spell,  therefore,  must  be  broken,  and  Frederick  must 
be  sent  forth  to  do  battle  in  distant  lands  with  the  Infidels  to  whom 
he  showed  so  dangerous  a  liking  in  his  own.  At  length  his  forces 
were  gathered  at  Brindisi,  1228,  but  fever  broke  out  among  them; 
and  Frederick,  having  embarked,  was  compelled  after  three  days 
to  put  into  the  harbor  of  Otranto.  Gregory  could  endure  no  more. 
Frederick  was  solemnly  excommunicated,  and  the  excoiiununica- 
tion  was  followed  by  interdict.  Papal  messengers  forbade  him 
now  to  leave  Italy  until  he  had  made  satisfaction  for  his  offenses 
against  the  church.  Frederick  retorted  by  sending  his  own  en- 
voys to  demand  the  removal  of  the  interdict,  and  then  sailed  to 
Ptolemais. 

Here  he  found  friends  in  the  Teutonic  Knights  and  their  grand 
master,  Herman  of  Salza;  and  although  he  was  ready  to  fight,  he 
was  still  more  willing  to  gain  his  ends  without  bloodshed.     At 


224  GREAT    BATTLES    OF    ALL    NATIONS 

length  a  treaty  signed  by  the  Sultan  Kameel,  1229,  surrendered  to 
Frederick  the  whole  of  Jerusalem  ^vith  the  exception  of  the  Mosque 
)f  Omar,  and  restored  to  the  Christians  the  towns  of  Jaffa,  Naza- 
reth, and  Bethlehem.  Success  thus  achieved  exasperated  rather 
than  appeased  the  pontiff.  The  interdict  followed  him  to  the  Holy 
City,  and  when  he  went  to  his  coronation  as  king  of  Jerusalem  in 
the  Church  of  the  Sepulcher,  not  a  single  priest  took  part  in  the  rite 
and  Frederick  was  compelled  to  crown  himself.  The  letters  which 
he  wrote  to  announce  a  success  which  he  regarded  as  splendid 
roused  only  a  storm  of  indignation,  Gregory  charged  him  with  a 
monstrous  attempt  to  reconcile  Christ  and  Belial,  and  to  set  up  the 
impostor  Mohammed  as  an  object  of  veneration  or  worship. 

The  treaty  with  Kameel,  which  closed  the  sixth  crusade,  was 
for  ten  years.  On  neither  side,  probably,  was  it  strictly  kept,  and 
the  injuries  done  to  pilgrims  on  their  way  from  Acre  to  Jerusalem 
were  alleged  as  a  sufficient  reason  for  sending  out  the  expedition 
headed  by  Richard,  Earl  of  Cornwall  (brother  of  the  English  Henry 
III.,  and  afterward  king  of  the  Romans).  This  expedition  may  be 
regarded  as  the  seventh  in  the  list  of  the  crusades,  and  deserves 
notice  as  having  been  brought  to  an  end,  like  that  of  Frederick,  by 
a  treaty,  1240.  The  terms  of  the  later  covenant  were  even  more 
favorable  to  the  Christians ;  but  two  years  later  the  Latin  power> 
such  as  it  was,  was  swept  away  by  the  inroad  of  Korasmians, 
pushed  onward  by  the  hordes  of  Genghis  Khan.  The  awful  havoc 
thus  caused  was  alleged  by  Pope  Innocent  IV.  as  a  reason  for 
again  summoning  Christendom  to  the  rescue  of  the  Holy  Land. 
But  nearly  seven  years  passed  away  before  the  French  king,  Louis 
IX.,  was  able  to  set  sail  for  Egypt  on  the  eighth  crusade.  This 
royal  saint,  who  lives  for  us  in  the  quaint  and  graphic  chronicle  of 
his  seneschal,  Joinville,  may  with  truth  be  said  to  have  been  ani- 
mated by  a  spirit  of  devotion  and  self-sacrifice  which  no  other 
crusading  leader  manifested  in  anything  like  the  same  measure. 
Intolerant  in  theory,  if  he  could  be  said  to  have  any  theory,  and 
bigoted  in  language,  Louis  had  that  true  charity  which  would 
make  him  succor  his  enemies  not  less  readily  than  his  friends.  Nor 
was  his  bravery  less  signal  than  his  gentleness.  It  was  displayed 
not  only  on  the  battlefield,  but  during  the  prolonged  miseries  of  a 


THE    CRUSADHS  225 

captivity  in  which  lie  underwent  keener  pain  for  the  sufferings  of 
others  than  for  his  own.  He  had,  indeed,  the  highest  virtues  of 
the  monk,  the  most  ardent  love  of  justice  and  truth,  the  mc«t  vehe- 
ment hatred  of  wrong ;  but  as  he  laid  no  claim  to  the  qualities  of 
a  general,  so  most  assuredly  it  cannot  be  said  that  he  possessed 
them.  His  damitless  courage  saved  his  army  from  complete  de- 
struction at  Mansourah,  1249 ;  but  his  offer  to  exchange  Damietta 
for  Jerusalem  was  rejected,  and  in  the  retreat,  during  which  they 
were  compelled  to  fight  at  desperate  disadvantage,  Louis  was  taken 
prisoner.  With  serene  patience,  "with  unwavering  tirmness,  and 
with  an  unclouded  trust  in  God,  he  underwent  sufferings  for  which 
the  Saracens,  so  Joinville  tells  us,  frankly  confessed  that  they  would 
have  renounced  Mohammed ;  and  when  the  payment  of  his  ransom 
set  him  free,  he  made  a  pilgrimage  in  sackcloth  to  Nazareth,  1"^50. 
With  a  fimmess  which  nothing  could  shake,  he  denied  himself  the 
solace  of  looking  on  the  Holy  City.  His  sense  of  duty  would  not 
allow  him  to  reap  the  fruits  of  an  enterprise  in  which  he  had  failed, 
and  so  to  set  an  evil  example  to  others.  As  a  general  he  had 
achieved  nothing,  but  his  himiiliation  involved  no  dishonor;  and 
the  genuineness  of  his  faith,  his  devotion,  and  his  love  had  been 
fully  tested  in  the  furnace  of  affliction. 

The  crusading  fire  was  now  rapidlv  bvn-ning  itself  out.  In  the 
AYest  there  was  nothing  to  awaken  again  the  enthusiasm  which 
had  been  stirred  by  Peter  the  Hermit,  and  by  Bernard ;  while  in 
Palestine  itself  almost  the  only  signs  of  genuine  activity  were  fur- 
nished by  the  antagonism  of  the  religious  military  orders.  There 
was,  in  truth,  disunion  and  schism  everywhere.  The  relations  be- 
tween the  Venetians  and  the  men  of  Genoa  and  Pisa  were  at  best 
those  of  a  hollow  truce ;  and  the  quarrels  of  the  Templars  and 
Hospitalers  led,  in  1259,  to  a  pitched  battle,  in  which  almost  all 
the  Templars  were  slain.  Some  eight  years  later  the  tidings  that 
Antioch  had  been  taken  by  the  Infidels  revived  in  St.  Louis  the 
old  yearning  for  the  rescue  of  the  hcly  places;  but  he  modestly 
expressed  his  fear  that  his  sins  might  again  bring  on  the  Christian 
arms  the  disasters  of  his  Egyptian  expedition.  Cheered  bj'  the 
sympathy  of  the  pope,  Clement  IV.,  he  embarked  with  an  army 
of  sixty  thousand  men,  1270;  but  a  storm  drove  his  ships  to  Sar- 
H— Vol.  I. 


226  GREAT    BATTLES    OF   ALL    NATIONS 

dinia,  and  thence  they  sailed  for  Tunis.  They  had  encamped,  it 
is  said,  on  the  site  of  Carthage,  when  a  plague  broke  out.  Tlie 
saintly  king  was  among  the  victims ;  and  this  truest  of  all  crusad- 
ers died  uttering  the  words,  "I  will  enter  Thy  house,  O  Lord;  I 
will  worship  in  Thy  sanctuary."  The  arrival  of  the  English  Ed- 
ward, who  was  soon  to  succeed  to  the  throne  on  the  death  of  Henrj* 
III.,  brought  about  no  immediate  change  in  the  circumstances  of 
the  crusaders.  In  the  following  year  Edward  reached  Acre,  took 
Nazareth — the  inhabitants  of  which  he  massacred— fell  sick,  and 
during  his  sickness  narrowly  escaped  being  murdered  by  an  as- 
sassin sent  by  the  emir  of  Joppa.  Having  made  a  peace  for  ten 
years,  he  returned  to  Europe;  and  the  ninth  and  last  crusade  was 
at  an  end. 


CHAPTER    XI 
THE   BATTLE   OF   HASTINGS 

CONQUEST    OF    ENGLAND    BY    DUKE    WILLIA:\r    OF    NORMANDY, 
AFTERWARD  STYLED  WILLIAM  THE   CONQUEROR 

A.  D.    1066 

THE   battle  of   Hastings   is   recognized   as   the   first   step   bj- 
which  England  reached  her  present  strength.     Previously 
the  importance  of  the  country  had  been  meager.     After- 
ward it  emerged  from  insignificance  into  power. 

The  interest  of  this  eventful  struggle,  by  which  William  of 
Normandy  became  king  of  England,  is  materiall}^  enhanced  by 
the  character  of  the  competitors  for  the  crown.  They  were  three 
in  number.  One  was  a  foreign  prince  from  the  north ;  one  was  a 
foreign  prince  from  the  south ;  and  one  was  a  native  hero  of  the 
land,  Harald  Hardrada,  the  strongest  and  the  most  chivalric  of 
the  kings  of  Norway,  was  the  first ;  Duke  "William  of  Normandy 
was  the  second ;   and  the  Saxon  Harold,  the  son  of  Earl  Godwin, 


THE    BATTLE    OF    HASTINGS  227 

was  the  third.  Never  was  a  nobler  prize  sought  by  nobler  cham- 
pions, or  striven  for  more  gallantly.  The  Saxun  triumphed  over 
the  Norwegian,  and  the  Norman  triumphed  over  the  Saxon ;  but 
Norse  valor  was  never  more  conspicuous  than  when  Harald  Har- 
drada  and  his  host  fought  and  fell  at  Stamford  Bridge;  nor  did 
Saxons  ever  face  their  foes  more  bravely  than  Harold  and  his  men 
on  the  fatal  day  of  Hastings. 

During  the  reign  of  King  Edward  the  Confessor  over  the  land, 
the  claims  of  the  Norwegian  king  to  the  crown  were  httle  thought 
of;  and  though  Hardrada's  predecessor,  King  Magnus  of  Norway, 
had  on  one  occasion  asserted  that,  by  virtue  of  a  compact  with  the 
former  king,  Hardicanute,  he  was  entitled  to  the  English  throne, 
no  serious  attempt  had  been  made  to  enforce  his  pretensions.  But 
the  rivalrj'  of  the  Saxon  Harold  and  the  Norman  ^yilliam  was  fore- 
seen and  bewailed  by  the  Confessor,  who  was  beheved  to  have 
predicted  on  his  deathbed  the  calamities  that  were  impending  over 
England.  Duke  "William  was  King  Edward's  kinsman.  Harold 
was  the  head  of  the  most  powerful  noble  house,  next  to  the  royal 
blood,  in  England ;  and,  personally',  he  was  the  bravest  and  most 
popular  chieftain  in  the  land.  King  Edward  was  childless,  and 
the  nearest  collateral  heir  was  a  ^xmy  unpromising  boy.  England 
had  suffered  too  severely,  during  royal  minorities,  to  make  the 
accession  of  Edgar  Atheling  desirable;  and  long  before  King  Ed- 
ward's death.  Earl  Harold  was  the  destined  king  of  the  nation's 
choice,  though  the  favor  of  the  Confessor  was  beheved  to  lead 
toward  the  Norman  duke. 

A  little  time  before  the  death  of  King  Edward,  Harold  was  in 
Normandy.  The  causes  of  the  voyage  of  the  Saxon  earl  to  the 
Continent  are  doubtful;  but  the  fact  of  his  having  been,  in  1065, 
at  the  ducal  court,  and  in  the  power  of  his  rival,  is  indisputable. 
AVilliam  made  skillful  and  unscrupulous  use  of  the  opportunity. 
Though  Harold  was  treated  with  outward  courtesy  and  friendship, 
he  was  made  fully  aware  that  his  liberty  and  life  depended  on  his 
compliance  with  the  duke's  requests.  William  said  to  him,  in 
apparent  confidence  and  cordiality,  ""When  King  Edward  and  I 
once  lived  like  brothers  under  the  same  roof,  he  promised  that  if 
ever  he  became  king  of  England  he  would  make  me  heir  to  his 


228  GREAT    BATTLES    OF    ALL    NATIONS 

throne.  Harold,  I  wish  that  thou  wouldst  assist  me  to  reahze  this 
promise."  Harold  replied  with  expressions  of  assent;  and  further 
agreed,  at  WilHam's  request,  to  marry  William's  daughter,  Adela, 
and  to  send  over  his  own  sister  to  be  married  to  one  of  William's 
barons.  The  crafty  Xorman  was  not  content  with  this  extorted 
promise ;  he  determined  to  bind  Harold  by  a  more  solemn  pledge, 
the  breach  of  which  would  be  a  weight  on  the  spirit  of  the  gallant 
Saxon,  and  a  discouragement  to  others  from  adopting  his  cause. 
Before  a  full  assembly  of  the  Norman  barons,  Harold  was  required 
to  do  homage  to  Duke  William,  as  the  heir  apparent  of  the  English 
crown.  Kneeling  down,  Harold  placed  his  hands  between  those  of 
the  duke,  and  repeated  the  solemn  form  by  which  he  acknowledged 
the  duke  as  his  lord,  and  promised  to  him  fealty  and  true  service. 
But  William  exacted  more.  He  had  caused  all  the  bones  and  relics 
of  saints  that  were  preserved  in  the  Norman  monasteries  and 
churches  to  be  collected  into  a  chest,  which  was  placed  in  the 
council-room,  covered  over  with  a  cloth  of  gold.  On  the  chest  of 
relics,  which  were  thus  concealed,  was  laid  a  missal.  The  duke 
then  solemnly  addressed  his  titular  guest  and  real  captive,  and 
said  to  him,  "Harold,  I  require  thee,  before  this  noble  assembly, 
to  confirm  by  oath  the  promises  which  thou  hast  made  me,  to  assist 
me  in  obtaining  the  crown  of  England  after  King  Edward's  death, 
to  marry  my  daughter  Adela,  and  to  send  me  thy  sister,  that  I 
may  gi\e  her  in  marriage  to  one  of  my  barons. ' '  Harold,  once 
more  taken  by  surprise,  and  not  able  to  deny  his  former  words, 
approached  the  missal,  and  laid  his  hand  on  it,  not  knowing  that 
the  chest  of  relics  was  beneath.  The  old  Norman  chronicler,  who 
describes  the  scene  most  minutely,  says,  when  Harold  placed  his 
hand  on  it,  the  hand  trembled,  and  the  flesh  quivered;  but  he 
swore,  and  promised  upon  his  oath  to  take  Ele  (Adela)  to  wife,  and 
to  dehver  up  England  to  the  duke,  and  thereunto  to  do  all  in  his 
power,  according  to  his  might  and  wit,  after  the  death  of  Edward, 
if  he  himself  should  live;  so  help  him  God.  Many  cried,  "God 
grant  it!"  and  when  Harold  rose  from  his  knees,  the  duke  made 
him  stand  close  to  the  chest,  and  took  off  the  pall  that  had  covered 
it,  and  showed  Harold  upon  what  holy  relics  he  had  sworn ;  and 
Harold  was  sorely  alarmed  at  the  sight. 


THE    BATTLE    OF    HASTINGS  229 

Harold  was  soon  after  permitted  to  return  to  England ;  and, 
after  a  short  interval,  during  which  he  distinguished  himself  by 
the  wisdom  and  humanity  with  which  he  pacified  some  formidable 
tumults  of  the  Anglo-Danes  in  Xorthumbria,  he  found  himself 
called  on  to  decide  whether  he  ^vould  keep  the  oath  which  the 
Norman  had  obtained  from  him,  or  mount  the  vacant  throne  of 
England  in  compliance  with  the  nation's  choice.  Kuig  Edward 
the  Confessor  died  on  the  5th  of  January,  1066,  and  on  the  follow- 
ing day  an  assembly  of  the  thanes  and  prelates  present  in  London, 
and  of  the  citizens  of  the  metropoUs,  declared  that  Harold  should 
be  their  king.  It  was  reported  that  the  dpng  Edward  had  nomi- 
nated him  as  his  successor.  But  the  sense  which  his  countrymen 
entertained  of  his  pre-eminent  merit  was  the  true  foundation  of  his 
title  to  the  crown.  Harold  resolved  to  disregard  the  oath  which 
he  made  in  Normandy  as  violent  and  void,  and  on  the  7th  day  of 
that  January  he  was  anointed  king  of  England,  and  received  from 
the  archbishop's  hands  the  golden  crown  and ,  scepter  of  England, 
and  also  an  ancient  national  symbol,  a  weighty  battle-ax.  He  had 
truly  deep  and  speedy  need  of  this  significant  part  of  the  insignia 
of  Saxon  royalty. 

A  messenger  from  Normandy  soon  arrived  to  remind  Harold  oi 
the  oath  which  he  had  sworn  to  the  duke  'Svith  his  mouth,  and  his 
liand  upon  good  and  holy  relics."  "It  is  true,"  replied  the  Saxon 
king,  "that  I  took  an  oath  to  "WiUiam;  but  I  took  it  imder  con- 
straint: I  promised  what  did  not  belong  to  me — what  I  could  not 
in  an}'  way  hold :  my  roj^alt}'  is  not  my  own ;  I  could  not  lay  it 
down  against  the  will  of  the  country,  nor  can  I,  against  the  will 
of  the  country,  take  a  foreign  wife.  As  for  my  sister,  whom  the 
duke  claims  that  he  may  marry  her  to  one  of  his  chiefs,  she  has 
died  within  the  j^ear;  would  he  have  me  send  her  corpse?" 

William  sent  another  message,  which  met  Avith  a  similar  an- 
swer ;  and  then  the  duke  published  far  and  wide  through  Christen- 
dom what  he  termed  the  perjury  and  bad  faith  of  his  rival,  and 
proclaimed  his  intention  of  asserting  his  rights  by  the  sword  before 
the  year  should  expire,  and  of  pursuing  and  punishing  the  perjurer 
even  in  those  places  where  he  thought  he  stood  most  strongly  and 
most  securely. 


230  GREAT   BATTLES    OF  ALL    NATIONS 

Before,  however,  he  commenced  hostilities,  William,  with  deep- 
laid  polic)^  submitted  his  claims  to  the  decision  of  the  pope. 
Harold  refused  to  acknowledge  this  tribunal,  or  to  answer  before 
an  Italian  priest  for  his  title  as  an  English  king.  After  a  formal 
examination  of  "William's  complaints  by  the  pope  and  the  cardinals, 
it  was  solemnly  adjudged  at  Rome  that  England  belonged  to  the 
Norman  duke ;  and  a  banner  was  sent  to  William  from  the  H0I3' 
See,  which  the  pope  himself  had  consecrated  and  blessed  for  the 
invasion  of  this  island.  The  clergy  throughout  the  Continent  were 
now  assiduous  and  energetic  in  preaching  up  William's  enterprise 
as  undertaken  in  the  cause  of  God.  Besides  these  spiritual  arms 
(the  effect  of  which  in  the  eleventh  centur}-  must  not  be  measured 
by  the  philosophy  or  the  indifferentism  of  the  nineteenth),  the  !N"or- 
man  duke  applied  all  the  energies  of  his  mind  and  body,  all  the 
resources  of  his  duchy,  and  all  the  influence  he  possessed  among 
vassals  or  aUies,  to  the  collection  of  "the  most  remarkable  and 
formidable  armament  which  the  AVestern  nations  had  witnessed." 
All  the  adv^enturous  spirits  of  Christendom  flocked  to  the  hoi}' 
banner,  under  which  Duke  William,  the  most  renowned  knight 
and  sagest  general  of  the  age,  promised  to  lead  them  to  glory  and 
wealth  in  thfe  fair  domains  of  England.  His  army  was  filled  with 
the  chivalry  of  Continental  Europe,  all  eager  to  save  their  souls  by 
fighting  at  the  pope's  bidding,  eager  to  signalize  their  valor  in  so 
great  an  enterprise,  and  eager  also  for  the  pay  and  the  plunder 
which  William  liberally  promised.  But  the  Normans  themselves 
were  the  pith  and  the  flower  of  the  army,  and  William  himself  was 
the  strongest,  the  sagest,  and  the  fiercest  spirit  of  them  all. 

Throughout  the  spring  and  summer  of  10G6,  all  the  seaports  of 
Normandy,  Picardy,  and  Brittany  rang  A\nth  the  busy  sound  of 
preparation.  On  the  opposite  side  of  the  Channel  King  Harold 
collected  the  armj''  and  the  fleet  with  which  he  hoped  to  crush  the 
southern  invaders.  But  the  unexpected  attack  of  King  Harald 
Hardrada  of  Norway  upon  another  part  of  England  disconcerted 
the  skillful  measures  which  the  Saxon  had  taken  against  the  men- 
acing armada  of  Duke  William. 

Harold's  renegade  brother,  Earl  Tostig,  had  excited  the  Norse 
king  to  this  enterprise,  the  importance  of  which  has  naturally  been 


THE   BATTLE   OF   HASTINGS  231 

eclipsed  by  the  supeiior  interest  attached  to  the  victorious  expedi- 
tion of  Duke  AVilliam,  but  which  was  on  a  scale  of  grandeur  which 
the  Scadinavian  ports  had  rarely,  if  ever,  before  witnessed.     Har- 
drada's  fleet  consisted  of  two  hundred  warships  and  three  hundred 
other  vessels,  and  all  the  best  warriors  of  Norway  were  in  his  host. 
He  sailed  first  to  the  Orkneys,  where  many  of  the  islanders  joined 
him,  and  then  to  Yorkshire.     After  a  severe  conflict  near  York, 
he  completely  r<3uted  Earls  Edwin  and  Morcar,  the  governors  of 
Northumbria.     The   city  of   York  opened  its   gates,   and   all  the 
country,  from  the  Tyne  to  the  Humber,  submitted  to  him.     The 
tidings  of  the  defeat  of  Edwin  and  Morcar  compelled  Harold  to 
leave  his  position  on  the  southern  coast,  and  move  instantly  against 
the  Norwegians.     By  a  remarkably  rapid  march  he  reached  York- 
shire in  four  days,  and  took  the  Norse  king  and  his  confederates 
by  surprise.     Nevertheless,   the   battle  which  ensued,   and  which 
was  fought  near  Stamford  Bridge,  was  desperate,  and  was  long 
doubtful.     Unable  to  break  the  ranks  of  the  Norwegian  phalanx 
by  force,  Harold  at  length  tempted  them  to  quit  their  close  order 
by  a  pretended  flight.     Then  the  English  columns  burst  in  among 
them,  and  a  carnage  ensued,  the  extent  of  which  may  be  judged 
of  by  the  exhaustion  and  inacti^^ty  of  Norway  for  a  quarter  of  a 
century  afterward.     King  Harald  Hardrada,  and  all  the  flower  of 
his  nobihty,  perished  on  the  35th  of  September,  106G,  at  Stamford 
Bridge,  a  battle  which  was  a  Flodden  to  Norway. 

Harold's  victory  was  splendid;  but  he  had  bought  it  dearly  by 
the  fall  of  many  of  his  best  officers  and  men,  and  still  more  dearly 
by  the  opportunity  which  Duke  WilHam  had  gained  of  effecting 
an  unopposed  landing  on  the  Sussex  coast.  The  whole  of  William's 
shipping  had  assembled  at  the  mouth  of  the  Dive,  a  little  river 
between  the  Seine  and  the  Orne,  as  early  as  the  middle  of  August. 
The  army  which  he  had  collected  amounted  to  fifty  thousand 
knights  and  ten  thousand  soldiers  of  inferior  degree.  Many  of 
the  knights  were  mounted,  but  many  must  have  served  on  foot, 
as  it  is  hardly  possible  to  beheve  that  WiUiam  could  have  found 
transports  for  the  conveyance  of  fifty  thousand  war-horses  across 
the  Channel.  For  a  long  time  the  winds  were  adverse,  and  tht" 
duke  employed  th.-  interval  that  passed  before  he  could  set  sail  in 


232  GREAT   BATTLES    OF    ALL   NATIONS 

completing  the  organization  and  in  improving  the  disciphne  of  his 
arm}^,  which  he  seems  to  have  brought  into  the  same  state  of  per- 
fection as  was  seven  centuries  and  a  half  afterward  the  boast  of 
another  army  assembled  on  the  same  coast,  and  which  Napoleon 
designed  for  a  similar  descent  upon  England. 

It  was  not  till  the  approach  of  the  equinox  that  the  wind  veered 
from  the  northeast  to  the  west,  and  gave  the  Normans  an  oppor- 
tunity of  quitting  the  weary  shores  of  the  Dive,  They  eagerly 
embarked,  and  set  sail,  but  the  wind  soon  freshened  to  a  gale,  and 
drove  them  along  the  French  coast  to  St.  Valery,  where  the  greater 
part  of  them  found  shelter ;  but  many  of  their  vessels  were  wrecked, 
and  the  whole  coast  of  Normandy  was  strewn  with  the  bodies  of 
the  drowned.  William's  army  began  to  grow  discouraged  and 
averse  to  the  enterprise,  which  the  very  elements  thus  seemed  to 
fight  against ;  though,  in  reality,  the  northeast  wind,  which  had 
cooped  them  so  long  at  the  mouth  of  the  Dive,  and  the  western 
gale,  which  had  forced  them  into  St.  Valery,  were  the  best  possible 
friends  to  the  invaders.  They  prevented  the  Normans  from  cross- 
ing the  Channel  until  the  Saxon  king  and  his  army  of  defense  had 
been  called  away  from  the  Sussex  coast  to  encounter  Harald  Har- 
drada  in  Yorkshire;  and  also  until  a  formidable  English  fleet, 
which  by  King  Harold's  orders  had  been  cruising  in  the  Channel 
to  intercept  the  Normans,  had  been  obliged  to  disperse  temporarily 
for  the  purpose  of  refitting  and  taking  in  fresh  stores  of  provisions, 

Duke  William  used  every  expedient  to  reanimate  the  drooping 
spirits  of  his  men  at  St.  Valery ;  and  at  last  he  caused  the  body  of 
the  patron  saint  of  the  place  to  be  exhumed  and  carried  in  solemn 
procession,  while  the  whole  assemblage  of  soldiers,  mariners,  and 
appurtenant  priests  implored  the  saint's  intercession  for  a  change 
of  wind.  That  verj^  night  the  wind  veered;  and  enabled  the 
medieval  Agamemnon  to  quit  his  Aulis. 

With  full  sails,  and  a  following  southern  breeze,  the  Norman 
Armada  left  the  French  shores  and  steered  for  England.  The 
invaders  crossed  an  undefended  sea,  and  found  an  undefended 
coast.  It  was  in  Pevensey  Bay,  in  Sussex,  at  Bulverhithe,  be- 
tween the  castle  of  Pevensey  and  Hastings,  that  the  last  conquer- 
oi-s  of  this  island  landed  on  the  29th  of  September,  1066. 


THE    BATTLE    OF    HASTINGS  233 

Harold  was  at  York,  rejoicing  over  his  recent  victory,  which 
had  deHvered  England  from  her  ancient  Scandinavian  foes,  and 
resettling  the  government  of  the  counties  which  Harald  Hardrada 
had  overrun,  when  the  tidings  reached  him  that  Duke  William  of 
Normandy  and  his  host  had  landed  on  the  Sussex  shore.  Harold 
instantly  hurried  southward  to  meet  this  long-expected  enemy. 
The  severe  loss  which  his  army  had  sustained  in  the  battle  with 
the  Norwegians  must  have  made  it  impossible  for  many  of  his 
veteran  troops  to  accompany  him  in  his  forced  march  to  London, 
and  thence  to  Sussex.  He  halted  at  the  capital  only  six  days,  and 
during  that  time  gave  orders  for  collecting  forces  from  the  southern 
and  midland  counties,  and  also  directed  his  fleet  to  reassemble  off 
the  Sussex  coast.  Harold  was  well  received  in  London,  and  his 
summons  to  arms  was  promptly  obe3'^ed  by  citizen,  by  thane,  liy 
sokman,  and  bj'  ceorl,  for  he  had  shown  himself,  during  his  brief 
reign,  a  just  and  wise  king,  affable  to  all  men,  active  for  the  good 
of  his  country,  and  (in  the  words  of  the  old  histoiian)  sparing  him- 
self from  no  fatigue  by  land  or  by  sea.  He  might  have  gathered 
a  much  more  numerous  army  than  that  of  William ;  but  his  recent 
victory  had  made  him  overconfident,  and  he  was  irritated  b}'  the 
reports  of  the  country  being  ravaged  by  the  invaders.  As  soon, 
therefore,  as  he  had  collected  a  small  army  in  London,  he  marched 
off  toward  the  coast,  pressing  forward  as  rapidly  as  his  men  could 
traverse  Surrey  and  Sussex,  in  the  hope  of  taking  the  Normans 
unawares,  as  he  had  recently,  by  a  similar  forced  march,  succeeded 
in  surprising  the  Norwegians.  But  he  had  now  to  deal  with  a  foe 
equally  brave  with  Harald  Hardrada,  and  far  more  skillful  and 
wary. 

The  old  Norman  chroniclers  describe  the  preparations  of  Wil- 
liam on  his  landing  with  a  graphic  vigor  which  would  be  wholly 
lost  by  transfusing  their  racy  Norman  couplets  and  terse  Latin 
prose  into  the  current  style  of  modern  history.  It  is  best  to  follow 
them  closely,  though  at  the  expense  of  much  quaintness  and  occa- 
sional uncouthness  of  expression.  They  tell  us  how  Duke  William's 
own  ship  was  the  first  of  the  Norman  fleet.  It  was  called  the 
"Mora,"  and  was  the  gift  of  his  duchess  Matilda.  On  the  head 
of  the  ship,  in  the  front,  which  mariners  call  the  prow,  there  was 


234  GREAT    BATTLES    OF    ALL    NATIONS 

a  brazen  child  bearing  an  airow  with  a  bended  bow.  His  face 
was  turned  toward  England,  and  thither  he  looked,  as  though  he 
was  about  to  shoot.  The  breeze  became  soft  and  sweet,  and  the 
sea  was  smooth  for  their  landing.  The  ships  ran  on  dry  land,  and 
each  ranged  by  the  other's  side.  There  you  might  see  the  good 
sailors,  the  sergeants,  and  squires  sally  forth  and  unload  the  ships ; 
cast  the  anchors,  haul  the  ropes,  bear  out  shields  and  saddles,  and 
land  the  war-horses  and  the  palfreys.  The  archers  came  forth, 
and  touched  land  the  first,  each  with  his  bow  strung,  and  with 
his  quiver  full  of  arrows  slung  at  his  side.  All  were  shaven  and 
shorn ;  and  all  clad  in  short  garments,  ready  to  attack,  to  shoot,  to 
wheel  about  and  skirmish.  All  stood  well  equipped,  and  of  good 
courage  for  the  fight ;  and  they  scoured  the  whole  shore,  but  found 
not  an  armed  man  there.  '  After  the  archers  had  thus  gone  forth, 
the  knights  landed  all  armed,  with  their  hauberks  on,  their  shields 
slung  at  their  necks,  and  their  helmets  laced.  They  formed  to- 
gether on  the  shore,  each  armed,  and  mounted  on  his  war-horse; 
all  had  their  swords  girded  on,  and  rode  forward  into  the  country 
Avith  their  lances  raised.  Then  the  carpenters  landed,  who  had 
great  axes  in  their  hands,  and  planes  and  adzes  hung  at  their  sides. 
They  took  counsel  together,  and  sought  for  a  good  spot  to  place  a 
castle  on.  They  had  brought  with  them  in  the  fleet  three  wooden 
castles  from  Normandy  in  pieces,  all  ready  for  framing  together, 
and  they  took  the  materials  of  one  of  these  out  of  the  ships,  all 
shaped  and  pierced  to  receive  the  pins  which  they  had  brought  cut 
and  ready  in  large  barrels ;  and  before  evening  had  set  in,  they 
had  finished  a  good  fort  on  the  English  ground,  and  there  they 
placed  their  stores.  All  then  ate  and  drank  enough,  and  were 
right  glad  that  they  were  ashore. 

When  Duke  William  himself  landed,  as  he  stepped  on  the 
shore  he  slipped  and  fell  forward  upon  his  two  hands.  Forthwith 
all  raised  a  loud  cry  of  distress.  "An  evil  sign,"  said  they,  "is 
here."  But  he  cried  out  lustily,  "See,  my  lords,  by  the  splendor 
of  God,*  I  have  taken  possession  of  England  with  both  my  hands. 
It  is  now  mine,  and  what  is  mine  is  yours. ' ' 

*  William's  customary  oath. 


THE    BATTLE    OF    HASTINGS  255 

The  next  daj-  they  marched  along  the  seashore  to  Hastings. 
Near  that  place  the  duke  fortified  a  camp,  and  set  up  the  two 
other  wooden  castles.  The  fi^ragers,  and  those  who  looked  out  for 
booty,  seized  all  the  clothing  and  provisions  they  could  find,  lest 
what  had  been  brought  by  the  ships  should  fail  them.  And  the 
English  were  to  be  seen  fleeing  before  them,  driving  off  their  cattle, 
and  quitting  their  houses.  Many  took  shelter  in  Imrpng-places, 
and  even  there  they  were  in  grievous  alarm. 

Besides  the  marauders  from  the  Norman  camp,  strong  bodies 
of  cavalry  were  detached  by  WilHam  into  the  country,  and  these, 
when  Harold  and  his  army  made  their  rapid  march  from  London 
southward,  fell  back  in  good  order  upon  the  main  body  of  the 
Normans,  and  reported  that  the  Saxon  king  was  rushing  on  Uke 
a  madman.     But  Harold,  when  he  found  that  his  hopes  of  surpris- 
ing his  adversary  were  vain,  changed  his  tactics,  and  halted  about 
seven  miles  from  the  Norman  fines.     He  sent   some   spies,   who 
spoke  the  French  language,  to  examine  the  number  and  prepara- 
tions of  the  enemy,  who,  on  their  return,  related  with  astonishment 
that  there  were  more  priests  in  Wilfiam's  camp  than  there  were 
fighting  men  in  the  Engfish  army.     They  had  mistaken  for  priests 
all  the  Norman  soldiers,  who  had  short  hair  and  shaven  chins,  for 
the  English  laymen  were  then  accustomed  to  wear  long  hair  and 
mustachios.     Harold,  who  knew  the  Norman  usages,   smiled   at 
their  words,  and  said,  "Those  whom  you  have  seen  in  such  num- 
bers are  not  priests,  but  stout  soldiers,   as  they  will  soon  make 

us  feel." 

Harold's  army  was  far  inferior  in  number  to  that  of  the  Nor- 
mans, and  some  of  his  captains  advised  him  to  retreat  upon 
London,  and  lay  waste  the  country,  so  as  to  starve  down  the 
strength  of  the  invaders.  The  policy  thus  recommended  was  un- 
questionably the  wisest,  for  the  Saxon  fleet  had  now  reassembled 
and  intercepted  all  William's  communications  with  Normandy; 
and,  as  soon  as  his  stores  of  provisions  were  exhausted,  he  must 
have  moved  forward  upon  London,  where  Harold,  at  the  head  of 
the  full  military  strength  of  the  kingdom,  could  have  defied  his 
-  assault,  and  probably  might  have  witnessed  his  rival's  destruction 
by  famine  and  disease,  without  having  to  strike  a  smgle  blow. 


236  GREAT    BATTLES    OF    ALL    NATIONS 

But  Harold's  bold  blood  was  up,  and  his  kindly  heart  could  not 
endure  to  inflict  on  the  South  Saxon  subjects  even  the  temporary 
misery  of  wasting  the  countr}'.  "He  would  not  burn  houses 
and  villages,  neither  would  he  take  awa}'  the  substance  of  his 
people." 

Harold's  brothers,  Gurth  and  Leofwine,  were  with  him  in  the 
camp,  and  Gurth  endeavored  to  persuade  him  to  absent  himself 
from  the  battle.  The  incident  shows  how  well  devised  had  been 
"William's  scheme  of  binding  Harold  by  the  oath  on  the  holy  relics. 
"My  brother,"  said  the  young  Saxon  prince,  "thou  canst  not  deny 
that  either  by  force  or  free  will  thou  hast  made  Duke  William  an 
oath  on  the  bodies  of  saints.  Why  then  risk  thyself  in  the  battle 
with  a  perjur\^  upon  thee?  To  us,  who  have  sworn  nothing,  this 
is  a  holy  and  a  just  war,  for  we  are  fighting  for  our  country. 
Leave  us  then  alone  to  fight  this  battle,  and  he  who  has  the  right 
will  \vin."  Harold  replied  that  he  would  not  look  on  while  others 
risked  their  lives  for  him.  Men  would  hold  him  a  coward,  and 
blame  him  for  sending  his  best  friends  where  he  dared  not  go  him- 
self. He  resoh^ed,  therefore,  to  fight,  and  to  fight  in  person ;  but 
he  was  still  too  good  a  general  to  be  the  assailant  in  the  action ; 
and  he  posted  his  army  vnih  great  skill  along  a  ridge  of  rising 
ground  which  opened  southward,  and  was  covered  on  the  back  by 
an  extensive  wood.  He  strengthened  his  position  by  a  palisade  of 
stakes  and  osier  hurdles,  and  there  he  said  he  would  defend  himself 
against  whoever  should  seek  him. 

The  ruins  of  Battle  Abbey  at  this  hour  attest  the  place  where 
Harold's  army  was  posted ;  and  the  high  altar  of  the  abbe}-  stood 
on  the  very  spot  where  Harold's  ovm  standard  was  planted  during 
the  fight,  and  where  the  carnage  was  the  thickest.  Immediately' 
after  his  victorj-,  William  vowed  to  build  an  abbej-  on  the  site;  and 
a  fair  and  stately  pile  soon  rose  there,  where  for  many  ages  the 
monks  prayed  and  said  masses  for  the  souls  of  those  who  were  slain 
in  the  battle,  whence  the  abbey  took  its  name.  Before  that  time 
the  place  was  called  Senlac.  Little  of  the  ancient  edifice  now  re- 
mains; but  it  is  easy  to  trace  in  the  park  and  the  neighborhood  the 
scenes  of  the  chief  incndents  in  the  action;  and  it  is  impossible  to 
deny  the  generalshij)  shown  by  Harold  in  stationing  his  men,  espe- 


THE    BATTLE    OF    HASTINGS  237 

cially  when  we  bear  in  mind  that  he  was  deficient  in  cavalry,  the 
arm  in  which  his  adversary's  main  strength  consisted. 

William's  only  chance  of  safety  lay  in  bringing  on  a  general 
engagement;  and  he  joyfully  advanced  his  army  from  their  camp 
on  the  hill  over  Hastings  nearer  to  the  Saxon  position.  But  he 
neglected  no  means  of  weakening  his  opponent,  and  renewed  his 
summonses  and  demands  on  Harold  with  an  ostentatious  air  of 
sanctity  and  moderation. 

"A  monk  named  Hugues  Maigrot  came  in  William's  name  to 
call  upon  the  Saxon  king  to  do  one  of  three  things— either  to  resign 
liis  royalty  in  favor  of  WilHam,  or  to  refer  it  to  the  arbitration  of 
the  pope  to  decide  which  of  the  two  ought  to  be  king,  or  to  let  it 
be  determined  by  the  issue  of  a  single  combat.     Harold  abruptly 
replied,  'I  will  not  resign  my  title,  I  will  not  refer  it  to  the  pope, 
nor  will  I  accept  the  single  combat.'     He  was  far  from  being  defi- 
cient in  bravery;  but  he  was  no  more  at  liberty  to  stake  the  crown 
which  he  had  received  from  a  whole  people  in  the  chance  of  a  duel 
than  to  deposit  it  in  the  hands  of  an  Italian  priest.     WilUam,  not 
at  all  ruffled  by  the  Saxon's  refusal,   but   steadily  pursuing   the 
course  of  his  calculated  measures,  sent  the  Norman  monk  again, 
after  giving  him  these  instructions:    'Go  and  tell  Harold  that  if 
he  will  keep  his  former  compact  with  me,  I  will  leave  to  him  all 
the  country  which  is  beyond  the  Humber,  and  wiU  give  his  brother 
Gurth  all  the  lands  which  God^^dn  held.     If  he  still  persist  in  refus- 
ing my  offers,  then  thou  sbalt  tell  him,  before  all  his  people,  that 
he  is  a  perjurer  and  a  liar;   that  he  and  all  who  shall  support  him 
are  excommunicated  by  the  mouth  of  the  pope,  and  that  the  bull 
to  that  effect  is  in  my  hands. ' 

"Hugues  Maigrot  delivered  this  message  in  a  solemn  tone;  and 
the  Norman  chronicle  says  that  at  the  word  excommunication  the 
English  chiefs  looked  at  one  another  as  if  some  great  danger  were 
impending.  One  of  them  then  spoke  as  follows:  'We  must  fight, 
whatever  may  be  the  danger  to  us;  for  what  we  have  to  consider 
is  not  whether  we  shall  accept  and  receive  a  new  lord,  as  if  our 
king  were  dead;  the  ca^e  is  quite  othei-wise.  The  Norman  has 
given  our  lands  to  his  captains,  to  his  knights,  to  all  bis  people, 
the  greater  part  of  whom  have  already  done  homage  to  him  for 


238  GREAT   BATTLES   OF   ALL   NATIONS 

them :  they  will  all  look  for  their  gift  if  their  duke  become  our 
king;  and  he  himself  is  bound  to  deliver  up  to  them  our  goods,  our 
wives,  and  our  daughters:  all  is  promised  to  them  beforehand. 
They  come  not  only  to  ruin  us,  but  to  ruin  our  descendants  also, 
and  to  take  from  us  the  country  of  our  ancestors.  And  what  shall 
we  do — whither  shall  we  go,  when  we  have  no  longer  a  countrj^?' 
The  English  promised,  by  a  unanimous  oath,  to  make  neither  peace, 
nor  truce,  nor  treaty  with  the  invader,  but  to  die,  or  drive  away 
the  Xormans."  * 

The  13th  of  October  was  occupied  in  these  negotiations,  and  at 
night  the  duke .  announced  to  his  men  that  the  next  day  would  be 
the  day  of  battle.  That  night  is  said  to  have  been  passed  by  the 
two  armies  in  very  different  manners.  The  Saxon  soldiers  spent 
it  in  joviality,  singing  their  national  songs,  and  draining  huge 
horns  of  ale  and  wine  round  their  camp-fires.  The  Normans,  when 
they  had  looked  to  their  arms  and  horses,  confessed  themselves  to 
the  priests  with  whom  their  camp  was  thronged,  and  received  the 
sacrament  by  thousands  at  a  time. 

On  Saturdaj-,  the  14th  of  October,  was  fought  the  great  battle. 

It  is  not  difl&cult  to  compose  a  narrative  of  its  principal  incidents 
from  the  historical  information  which  we  possess,  especially  if  aided 
by  an  examination  of  the  ground.  But  it  is  far  better  to  adopt  the 
spirit-stirring  words  of  the  old  chroniclers,  who  wrote  while  the  rec- 
ollections of  the  battle  were  yet  fresh,  and  while  the  feelings  and 
prejudices  of  the  combatants  yet  glowed  in  the  bosoms  of  living 
men.  Robert  "Wace,  the  Norman  poet,  who  presented  his  "Roman 
de  Rou"  to  our  Henry  II.,  is  the  most  picturesque  and  animated 
of  the  old  writers,  and  from  him  we  can  obtain  a  more  vivid  and 
full  description  of  the  conflict  than  eA^en  the  most  brilliant  romance- 
writer  of  the  present  time  can  supply.  We  have  also  an  antique 
memorial  of  the  battle,  more  to  be  relied  on  than  either  chronicler 
or  poet  (and  which  confirms  Wace's  narrative  remarkably),  in  the 
celebrated  Bayeux  tapestry  which  represents  the  principal  scenes 
of  Duke  "William's  expedition,  and  of  the  circumstances  connected 
with  it,  in  minute,  though  occasionally  grotesque  details,  and  which 

*  Thierry. 


THE   BATTLE    OF    HASTINGS  239 

was  undoubtedly  the  production  of  the  same  age  m  which  the  battle 
took  place,  whether  we  admit  or  reject  the  legend  that  Queen  Ma- 
tilda and  the  ladies  of  her  court  wrought  it  with  her  o^vn  hands  m 
honor  of  the  royal  conqueror. 

Let  us  therefore  suffer  the  old  Norman  chronicler  to  transport 
our  imaginations  to  the  fair  Sussex  scenery  northwest  of  Hastings, 
as  it  appeared  on  the  morning  of  the  14th  of  October,  seven  hun- 
dred and  eighty-five  years  ago.     The  Norman  host  is  pounng  forth 
from  its  tents,  and  each  troop  and  each  company  is  formmg  fast 
under  the  banner  of  its  leader.     The  masses  have  been  sung,  which 
were  finished  betimes  in  the  morning;  the  barons  have  all  assem- 
bled round  Duke  William;  and  the  duke  has  ordered  that  the  army 
shall  be  formed  in  three  divisions,  so  as  to  make  the  attack  upon 
the  Saxon  position  in  three  places.     The  duke  stood  on  a  hill  where 
he  could  best  see  his  men;    the  barons  surrounded  him,  and  he 
spake  to  them  proudly.     He  told  them  how  he  trusted  them,  and 
how  all  that  he  gained  should  be  theirs,  and  how  sure  he  felt  of 
conquest,  for  in  aU  the  world  there  was  not  so  brave  an  army,  or 
such  good  men  and  true  as  were  then  forming  around  him.     Then 
they  cheered  him  in  turn,  and  cried  out,  "  'You  will  not  see  one 
coward;   none  here  will  fear  to  die  for  love  of  you,  if  need  be. 
^nd  he  answered  them,  'I  thank  you  well.     For  God's  sake,  spare 
not-    strike  hard  at  the  beginning;  stay  not  to  take  spoil;  all  the 
booty  shall  be  in  common,  and  there  will  be  plenty  for  every  one 
There  will  be  no  safety  in  asking  quarter  or  in  flight;  the  Enghsh 
^-iU  never  love  or  spare  a  Norman.     Felons  they  were,  and  felons 
they  are;  false  they  were,  and  false  they  .vill  be.     Show  no  weak- 
ness toward  them,  for  they  vnW  have  no  pity  on  you;  neither  the 
coward  for  running  well,  nor  the  bold  man  for  smiting  weU,  will 
be  the  better  liked  by  the  Enghsh,  nor  will  any  be  the  more  spared 
on  either  account.     You  may  fly  to  the  sea,  but  you  can  fly  no 
further-  you  will  find  neither  ships  nor  bridge  there;  there  will  be 
no  sailors  to  receive  you;   and  the  English  will  overtake  you  there, 
and  slay  vou  in  your  shame.     More  of  you  will  die  in  flight  than  in 
battle      Then,  as  flight  will  not  secure  you,   fight,  and  you  wiU 
conquer      I  have  no  doubt  of  the  victory;  we  are  come  for  glory; 
the  victory  is  in  our  hands,  and  we  may  make  sure  of  obtaining  it 


240       GREAT  BATTLES  OF  ALL  NATIONS 

if  we  so  please. '  As  the  duke  was  speaking  thus  and  would  yet 
have  spoken  more,  William  Fitz  Osber  rode  up  with  his  horse  all 
coated  with  iron:  'Sire,'  said  he,  'we  tarry  here  too  long;  let  us 
all  arm  ourselves.     Allans. '   allonsr 

"Then  all  went  to  their  tents,  and  armed  themselves  as  they 
best  might;  and  the  duke  was  very  busy,  giving  every  one  his 
orders;  and  he  was  courteous  to  all  the  vassals,  giving  away  many 
arms  and  horses  to  them.  When  he  prepared  to  arm  himself,  he 
called  first  for  his  hauberk,  and  a  man  brought  it  on  his  arm,  and 
placed  it  before  him ;  but  in  putting  his  head  in,  to  get  it  on,  he 
unawares  turned  it  the  wrong  way,  with  the  back  part  in  front. 
He  soon  changed  it;  but  when  he  saw  that  those  who  stood  by 
were  sorely  alanned,  he  said,  'I  have  seen  many  a  man  who,  if 
such  a  thing  had  happened  to  him,  would  not  have  borne  arms, 
or  entered  the  field  the  same  day ;  but  I  never  believed  in  omens, 
and  I  never  will.  I  trust  in  God,  for  he  does  in  all  things  his 
pleasure,  and  ordains  what  is  to  come  to  pass  according  to  his  will. 
I  have  never  liked  fortune-tellers,  nor  believed  in  diviners;  but  I 
commend  myself  to  Our  Lady.  Let  not  this  mischance  give  you 
trouble.  The  hauberk  which  was  turned  wrong,  and  then  set 
right  by  me,  signifies  that  a  change  will  arise  out  of  the  matter 
which  we  are  now  stin-ing.  You  shall  see  the  name  of  duke 
changed  into  king.  Yea,  a  king  shall  I  be,  who  hitherto  have 
been  but  a  duke. '  Then  he  crossed  himself,  and  straightway  took 
his  hauberk,  stooped  his  head,  and  put  it  on  aright ;  and  laced  his 
helmet,  and  girt  on  his  sword,  which  a  varlet  brought  him.  Then 
the  duke  called  for  his  good  horse — a  better  could  not  be  found.  It 
had  been  sent  him  by  a  king  of  Spain  out  of  great  friendship. 
Neither  arms  nor  the  press  of  fighting  men  did  it  fear,  if  its  lord 
spurred  it  on.  Walter  Giffard  brought  it.  The  duke  stretched 
out  his  hand,  took  the  reins,  put  foot  in  stirrup,  and  mounted ;  and 
the  good  horse  pawed,  pranced,  reared  himself  up,  and  curveted. 
The  Viscount  of  Toarz  saw  how  the  duke  bore  himself  in  arms, 
and  said  to  his  people  that  were  around  him,  'Xever  have  I  seen 
a  man  so  fairly  armed,  nor  one  who  rode  so  gallantly,  or  bore  his 
arms,  or  became  his  hauberk  so  well;  neither  any  one  who  bore 
his  lance  so  gracefully,  or  sat  his  horse  and  managed  him  so  nobly. 


THE    BATTLE    OF    HASTINGS 


241 


There  is  no  such  knight  under  heaven!    a  fair  count  he  is,  and  fair 

king  he  will  be.     Let  him  fight,  and  he  shall  overcome;  shame 

be  to  the  man  who  shall  fail  him.' 

"Then  the  duke  called  for  the  standard  which  the  pope  had  sent 

him,  and  he  who  bore  it  having  unfolded  it,  the  duke  took  it  and 
called  to  Raol  de  Conches.  'Bear  my  standard,'  said  he,  'for  1 
would  not  but  do  you  right;  by  right  and  by  ancestry  your  line  are 
standard-bearers  of  Normandy,  and  very  good  knights  haye^  they 
all  been  '     But  Raol  said  that  he  would  serve  the  duke  that  day  m 


PLAN  OK  BATTLK  OF  HASTINGS. 

other  guise,  and  would  fight  the  English  with  his  hand  as  long  as 
;*  should  last.  Then  the  duke  hade  Galtier  Giffart  hear  the 
standard  But  he  was  old  and  white-headed,  and  hade  the  duke 
give  the  standard  to  some  younger  and  stronger  nwn  to  earn- 
Then  the  duke  said  fiercely.  'By  the  splendor  of  God  my  lords, 
1  think  you  mean  to  betray  and  fail  me  in  this  great  need.  Sire, 
said  Giffart,  'not  so!  we  have  done  no  treason,  nor  do  I  refuse 
from  any  felony  toward  you-,  but  I  have  to  lead  a  great  clnvalry 
,„„„  huld  n,en  artd  the  men  of  my  fief.  Never  had  such  good 
means  of  serving  you  as  I  now  have;  and,  if  God  i,lease,  I  wiU 


242  GREAT    BATTLES    OF  ALL    NATIONS 

serve  you ;  if  need  be,  I  will  die  for  you,  and  will,  give  my  own 
heart  for  yours. ' 

"  'By  my  faith,'  quote  the  duke,  'I  always  loved  thee,  and  now 
I  love  thee  more ;  if  I  survive  this  day,  thou  shalt  be  the  better  for 
it  all  thy  days. '  Then  he  called  out  a  knight,  whom  he  had  heard 
much  praised,  Tosteins  Fitz-Rou  le  Blanc  by  name,  whose  abode 
was  at  Bec-en-Caux.  To  him  he  delivered  the  standard ;  and  Tos- 
teins took  it  right  cheerfully,  and  bowed  low  to  him  in  thanks,  and 
bore  it  gallantly,  and  with  good  heart.  His  kindred  still  have 
quittance  of  all  service  for  their  inheritance  on  this  account,  and 
their  heirs  are  entitled  so  to  hold  their  inheritance  forever. 

"William  sat  on  his  war-horse,  and  called  out  Rogier,  whom 
they  call  De  Montgomeri.  'I  rely  much  on  you,'  said  he;  'lead 
your  men  thitherward,  and  attack  them  from  that  side.  WilKam, 
the  son  of  Osber,  the  seneschal,  a  right  good  vassal,  shall  go  with 
you  and  help  in  the  attack,  and  you  shall  have  the  men  of  Boilogne 
and  Poix,  and  all  my  soldiers.  Alain  Fergert  and  Ameri  shall 
attack  on  the  other  side ;  they  shall  lead  the  Poitevins  and  the 
Bretons,  and  all  the  barons  of  Maine :  and  I,  with  my  own  great 
men,  my  friends  and  kindred,  will  fight  in  the  middle  throng, 
where  the  battle  shall  be  the  hottest. ' 

"The  barons,  and  knights,  and  men-at-arms  were  all  now  armed; 
the  foot-soldiers  were  well  equipped,  each  bearing  bow  and  sword ; 
on  their  heads  were  caps,  and  to  their  feet  were  bound  buskins. 
Some  had  good  hides  which  they  had  bound  round  their  bodies; 
and  many  were  clad  in  frocks,  and  had  quivers  and  bows  hung  to 
their  girdles.  The  knights  had  hauberks  and  swords,  boots  of 
steel,  and  shining  helmets;  shields  at  their  necks,  and  in  their 
hands  lances.  And  all  had  their  cognizances,  so  that  each  might 
know  his  fellow,  and  Norman  might  not  strike  Norman,  nor 
Frenchman  kill  his  countryman  by  mistake.  Those  on  foot  led 
the  way,  with  serried  ranks,  bearing  their  bows.  The  knights 
rode  next,  supporting  the  archers  from  behind.  Thus  both  horse 
and  foot  kept  their  course  and  order  of  march  as  they  began,  in 
close  ranks  at  a  gentle  pace,  that  the  one  might  not  pass  or  sepa- 
rate from  the  other.  All  went  firmly  and  compactly,  bearing 
themselves  gallantly. 


THE    BATTLE    OF    HASTINGS  243 

'' Harold  had  summoned  his  men,  earls,  barons  and  vavasors, 
from  the  castles  and  the  cities,  from  the  puFts,  the  villages  and 
boroughs.  The  peasants  were  also  called  together  from  the  vil- 
lages, bearing  such  arms  as  they  found;  clubs  and  great  picks, 
iron  forks  and  stakes.  The  English  had  inclosed  the  place  where 
Harold  was  with  his  friends  and  the  barons  of  the  country  whom 
lie  had  summoned  and  called  together. 

"Those  of  London  had  come  at  once,  and  those  of  Kent,  of 
Hertfort,  and  of  Essesse;  those  of  Suree  and  Susesse,  of  St.  Ed- 
mund and  Sufoc;  of  Norwis  and  Norfoc;  of  Cantorbierre  and 
Stanfort ;  Bedefort  and  Hundetone.  The  men  of  Northanton  also 
came ;  and  those  of  Eurowic  and  Bokinkeham,  of  Bed  and  Notinkc- 
ham,  Lindesie  and  Nichole.  There  came  also  from  the  west  all 
who  heard  the  summons ;  and  very  many  were  to  be  seen  coming 
from  Salebiere  and  Dorset,  from  Bat  and  from  Sumerset.  Many 
came,  too,  from  about  Glocestre,  and  many  from  Wirecestre,  from 
Wincestre,  Hontesire  and  Brichesire ;  and  many  more  from  other 
counties  that  we  have  not  named,  and  cannot,  indeed,  recount. 
All  who  could  bear  arms,  and  had  learned  the  news  of  the 
duke's  arrival,  came  to  defend  the  land.  But  none  came  from 
beyond  the  Humbre,  for  they  had  other  business  upon  their 
hands,  the  Danes  and  Tosti  having  much  damaged  and  weakened 
them. 

"Harold  knew  that  the  Normans  would  come  and  attack  him 
hand  to  hand,  so  he  had  early  inclosed  the  field  in  which  he  had 
placed  liis  men.  He  made  them  arm  early,  and  range  themselves 
for  the  battle,  he  himseK  having  put  on  arms  and  equipments  that 
became  such  a  lord.  The  duke,  he  said,  ought  to  seek  him,  as  he 
wanted  to  conquer  England ;  and  it  became  him  to  abide  the  attack 
who  had  to  defend  the  land.  He  commanded  the  people,  and  coun- 
seled his  barons  to  keep  themselves  all  together,  and  defend  them- 
selves in  a  body;  for  if  they  once  separated,  the}^  would  with 
difficulty  recover  themselves.  'The  Normans,'  said  he,  'are  good 
vassals,  valiant  on  foot  and  on  horseback ;  good  knights  are  they 
on  horseback,  and  well  used  to  battle ;  all  is  lost  if  they  once  pene- 
trate our  ranks.  They  have  brought  long  lances  and  swords,  but 
you  have  pointed  lances  and  keen-edged  bills ;  and  I  do  not  expect 


244  GREAT   BATTLES    OF    ALL   NATIONS 

that  their  arms  can  stand  against  yours.  Cleave  whenever  you 
can;   it  will  be  ill  done  if  you  spare  aught.' 

"The  English  had  built  up  a  fence  before  them  with  their 
shields,  and  with  ash  and  other  wood,  and  had  well  joined  and 
wattled  in  the  whole  work,  so  as  not  to  leave  even  a  crevice ;  and 
thus  they  had  a  barricade  in  their  front  through  which  any  Nor- 
man who  would  attack  them  must  first  pass.  Being  covered  in 
this  way  by  their  shields  and  barricades,  their  aim  was  to  defend 
themselves ;  and  if  thej'  had  remained  steady  for  that  purpose,  they 
would  not  have  been  conquered  that  day;  for  every  Norman  who 
made  his  way  in  lost  his  life  in  dishonor,  either  by  hatchet  or  bill, 
by  club  or  other  weapon.  They  wore  short  and  close  hauberks, 
and  helnaets  that  hung  over  their  garments.  King  Harold  issued 
orders,  and  made  proclamation  round,  that  all  should  be  ranged 
with  their  faces  toward  the  enemy,  and  that  no  one  should  move 
from  where  he  was,  so  that  whoever  came  might  find  them  ready; 
and  that  whatever  any  one,  be  he  Norman  or  other,  should  do, 
each  should  do  his  best  to  defend  liis  own  place.  Then  he  ordered 
the  men  of  Kent  to  go  where  the  Normans  were  likely  to  make  the 
attack;  for  they  say  that  the  men  of  Kent  are  entitled  to  strike 
first;  and  that  whenever  the  king  goes  to  battle,  the  first  blow 
belongs  to  theni.  The  right  of  the  men  of  London  is  to  guard  the 
king's  body,  to  place  themselves  around  him,  and  to  guard  his 
standard;  and  they  were  accordingly  placed  by  the  standard  to 
watch  and  defend  it. 

"When  Harold  had  made  all  ready,  and  given  his  orders,  he 
came  into  the  midst  of  the  English  and  dismounted  by  the  side  of 
the  standard;  Leofwin  and  Gurth,  his  brothers,  were  with  him; 
and  around  him  he  had  barons  enough,  as  he  stood  by  his  stand- 
ard, which  was,  in  truth,  a  noble  one,  sparkHng  with  gold  and 
precious  stones.  After  the  victory'  William  sent  it  to  the  pope,  to 
prove  and  commemorate  his  great  conquest  and  glory.  The  En- 
glish stood  in  close  ranks,  ready  and  eager  for  the  fight ;  and  they, 
moreover,  made  a  fosse,  which  went  across  the  field,  guarding  one 
side  of  their  armj'. 

"Meanwhile  the  Normans  appeared  advancing  over  the  ridge 
of  a  rising  ground,  and  the  first  division  of  their  troops  moved 


THE    BATTLb    OF    HASTINGS  Z45 

onward  along  the  hill  and  across  a  valley.  And  presently  another 
division,  still  larger,  came  in  sight,  close  following  upon  the  first, 
and  they  were  led  toward  another  part  of  the  field,  forming  to- 
gether as  the  first  body  had  done.  And  while  Harold  saw  and 
examined  them,  and  was  pointing  them  out  to  Gurth,  a  fresh 
company  came  in  sight,  covering  all  the  plain ;  and  in  the  midst 
of  them  was  raised  the  standard  that  came  from  Rome.  Near  it 
was  the  duke,  and  the  best  men  and  greatest  strength  of  the  army 
were  there.  The  good  knights,  the  good  vassals  and  brave  war- 
riors were  there;  and  there  were  gathered  together  the  gentle 
barons,  the  good  archers,  and  the  men-at-arms,  whose  duty  it  was 
to  guard  the  duke  and  range  themselves  around  him.  The  youths 
and  common  herd  of  the  camp,  whose  business  was  not  to  join  in 
the  battle,  but  to  take  care  of  the  harness  and  stores,  moved  off 
toward  a  rising  ground.  The  priests  and  the  clerks  also  ascended 
a  hill,  there  to  offer  up  prayers  to  God  and  watch  the  event  (3f 
the  battle, 

"The  English  stood  firm  on  foot  in  close  ranks,  and  carried 
themselves  right  boldly.  Each  man  had  his  hauberk  on,  with  liis 
sword  girt,  and  his  shield  at  his  neck.  Great  hatchets  were  also 
slung  at  their  necks,  with  which  they  expected  to  strike  heavy 
blows. 

"The  Normans  brought  on  the  three  divisions  of  their  armj'  to 
attack  at  different  places.  They  set  out  in  three  companies,  and 
in  three  companies  did  they  fight.  The  first  and  second  had  come 
up,  and  then  advanced  the  third,  which  was  the  greatest;  with 
that  came  the  duke  mth  his  own  men,  and  all  moved  boldly 
forward. 

"As  soon  as  the  two  armies  were  in  full  view  of  each  other, 
great  noise  and  tumult  arose.  You  might  hear  the  sound  of  many 
trumpets,  of  bugles,  and  of  horns ;  and  then  you  might  see  men 
ranging  themselves  in  line,  lifting  their  shields,  raising  their  lances, 
bending  their  bows,  handling  their  arrows,  readj^  for  assault  and 
defense. 

"The  English  stood  ready  to  their  post,  the  Normans  still  moved 
on ;  and  when  they  drew  near,  the  English  were  to  be  seen  stirring 
to  and  fro;  were  going  and  coming;    troops   ranging  themselves  in 


246  GREAT   BATTLES   OF   ALL   NATIONS 

order ;  some  with  their  color  rising,  others  turning  pale ;  some  mak- 
ing ready  their  arms,  others  raising  their  shields ;  the  brave  man 
rousing  himself  to  fight,  the  coward  trembling  at  the  approach  of 
danger, 

"Then  Taillefer,  who  sang  right  well,  rode,  mounted  on  a  swift 
horse,  before  the  duke,  singing  of  Charlemagne  and  of  Roland,  of 
Oliver,  and  the  peers  who  died  in  Roncesvalles.  And  when  they 
drew  nigh  to  the  English,  'A  boon,  sire!'  cried  Taillefer;  'I  have 
long  served  you,  and  you  owe  me  for  all  such  service.  To-day,  so 
please  you,  you  shall  repay  it.  I  ask  as  my  guerdon,  and  beseech 
you  for  it  earnestly,  that  you  will  allow  me  to  strike  the  first  blow 
in  the  battle!'  And  the  duke  answered,  'I  grant  it.'  Then  Tail- 
lefer put  his  horse  to  a  gallop,  charging  before  all  the  rest,  and 
struck  an  Englishman  dead,  driving  his  lance  below  the  breast  into 
his  body,  and  stretching  him  upon  the  ground.  Then  he  drew  his 
sword,  and  struck  another,  crying  out,  'Come  on,  come  on!  What 
do  ye,  sirs?  lay  on,  lay  on!'  At  the  second  blow  he  struck,  the  En- 
glish pushed  forward,  and  surrounded  and  slew  him.  Forthwith 
arose  the  noise  and  cry  of  war,  and  on  either  side  the  people  put 
themselves  in  motion. 

"The  Normans  moved  on  to  the  assault,  and  the  English  de- 
fended themselves  well.  Some  were  striking,  others  urging  on- 
ward ;  all  were  bold,  and  cast  aside  fear.  And  now,  behold,  that 
battle  was  gathered  whereof  the  fame  is  yet  mighty. 

"Loud  and  far  resounded  the  bray  of  the  horns;  and  the  shocks 
of  the  lances,  the  mighty  strokes  of  maces,  and  the  quick  clashing 
of  swords.  One  while  the  Englishmen  rushed  on,  another  while 
they  fell  back ;  one  while  the  men  from  oversea  charged  onward, 
and  again  at  other  times  retreated.  The  Normans  shouted  Dex 
Aie,  the  English  people  Out.  Then  came  the  cunning  maneuvers, 
the  rude  shocks  and  strokes  of  the  lance  and  blows  of  the  swords, 
among  the  sergeants  and  soldiers,  both  English  and  Norman. 

"When  the  English  fall  the  Normans  shout.  Each  side  taunts 
and  defies  the  other,  yet  neither  knoweth  what  the  other  saith;  and 
the  Normans  say  the  English  bark,  because  they  understand  not 
their  speech. 

"Some  wax  strong,  others  weak:   the  brave  exult,  but  the  cow- 


THE    BATTLE    OF    HASTINGS  247 

ards  tremble,  as  men  who  are  sore  dismayed.  The  Normans  press 
on  the  assault,  and  the  English  defend  their  post  well ;  they  pierce 
the  hauberks,  and  cleave  the  shields,  receive  and  return  mighty 
blows.  Again,  some  press  forward,  others  yield;  and  thus,  in 
various  ways,  the  struggle  proceeds.  In  the  plain  was  a  fosse, 
which  the  Normans  had  now  behind  them,  having  passed  it  in  the 
fight  without  regarding  it.  But  the  English  charged  and  drove 
the  Normans  before  them  till  they  made  them  fall  back  upon  this 
fosse,  overthrowing  into  it  horses  and  men.  Many  were  to  be  seen 
falling  therein,  rolling  one  over  the  other,  with  their  faces  to  the 
earth,  and  unable  to  rise.  Many  of  the  English,  also,  whom  the 
Normans  drew  dovni  along  with  them,  died  there.  At  no  time 
during  the  day's  battle  did  so  many  Normans  die  as  perished  in 
that  fosse.     So  those  said  who  saw  the  dead. 

"The  varlets  who  were  set  to  guard  the  harness  began  to  aban- 
don it  as  they  saw  the  loss  of  the  Frenchmen,  w^hen  thrown  back 
upon  the  fosse  without  power  to  recover  themselves.  Being  greatly 
alarmed  at  seeing  the  difficulty  in  restoring  order,  they  began  to 
quit  the  harness,  and  sought  aroimd,  not  knowing  where  to  find 
shelter.  Then  Duke  WiUiam's  brother,  Odo,  the  good  priest,  the 
bishop  of  Bayeux,  galloped  up,  and  said  to  them,  'Stand  fast! 
stand  fast!  be  quiet  and  move  not!  fear  nothing;  for,  if  God 
please,  we  shall  conquer  yet.'  So  they  took  courage,  and  rested 
where  they  were ;  and  Odo  returned  galloping  back  to  where  the 
battle  was  most  fierce,  and  was  of  great  service  on  that  day.  He 
had  put  a  hauberk  on  over  a  white  aube,  wide  in  the  body,  with 
the  sleeve  tight,  and  sat  on  a  white  horse,  so  that  all  might  recog- 
nize him.  In  his  hand  he  held  a  mace,  and  wherever  he  saw  most 
need  he  held  up  and  stationed  the  knights,  and  often  urged  them 
on  to  assault  and  strike  the  enemy. 

"From  nine  o'clock  in  the  morning,  when  the  combat  began, 
till  three  o'clock  came,  the  battle  was  up  and  down,  this  way  and 
that,  and  no  one  knew  who  would  conquer  and  win  the  land.  Both 
sides  stood  so  firm  and  fought  so  well  that  no  one  could  guess  which 
would  prevail.  The  Norman  archers  with  their  bows  shot  thickly 
upon  the  English ;  but  they  covered  themselves  with  their  shields, 
so  that  the  arrows  could  not  reach  their  bodies,  nor  do  any  mis- 


248  GREAT    BATTLES    OF    ALL    NATIONS 

chief,  how  true  soever  was  their  aim,  or  however  well  they  shot. 
Then  the  Xormans  determined  to  shoot  their  arrows  upward  into 
the  air,  so  that  they  might  fall  on  their  enemies'  heads,  and  strike 
their  faces.  The  archers  adopted  this  scheme,  and  shot  up  into 
the  air  toward  the  English ;  and  the  arrows,  in  falling,  struck  their 
heads  and  faces,  and  put  out  the  eyes  of  many ;  and  all  feared  to 
open  their  eyes,  or  leave  their  faces  unguarded. 

"The  arrows  now  flew  thicker  than  rain  before  the  wind;  fast 
sped  the  shafts  that  the  English  call  'wibetes.'  Then  it  was  that 
an  arrow,  that  had  been  thus  shot  upward,  struck  Harold  above 
his  right  eye,  and  put  it  out.  In  his  agony  he  drew  the  arrow  and 
threw  it  awaj',  breaking  it  with  his  hands;  and  the  pain  to  his 
head  was  so  great  that  he  leaned  upon  his  shield.  So  the  English 
were  wont  to  say,  and  still  say  to  the  French,  that  the  arrow  was 
well  shot  Avhich  was  so  sent  up  against  their  king,  and  that  the 
archer  won  them  great  glory  who  thus  put  out  Harold's  eye. 

"The  Normans  saw  that  the  English  defended  themselves  well, 
and  were  so  strong  in  their  position  that  the}'  could  do  little  against 
them.  So  they  consulted  together  privily,  and  arranged  to  draw 
off,  and  pretend  to  flee,  till  the  English  should  pursue  and  scatter 
themselves  over  the  field ;  for  they  saw  that  if  they  could  once  get 
their  enemies  to  break  their  ranks,  they  might  be  attacked  and 
discomfited  much  more  easil}'.  As  they  bad  said,  so  thej'  did. 
The  Normans  by  little  and  httle  fled,  the  English  following  them. 
As  the  one  fell  back,  the  other  pressed  after ;  and  when  the  French- 
men retreated,  the  English  thought  and  cried  out  that  the  men  of 
France  fled,  and  would  never  return. 

"Thus  the}-  were  deceived  by  the  pretended  flight,  and  great 
mischief  thereby  befell  them;  for  if  they  had  not  moved  from 
their  position,  it  is  not  likely  that  they  would  have  been  conquered 
at  all;  but,  like  fools,  they  broke  their  lines  and  pursued. 

"The  Normans  were  to  be  seen  folloA\nng  up  their  stratagem, 
retreating  slowlj'^  so  as  to  draw  the  English  further  on.  As  they 
still  flee,  the  English  pursue;  they  push  out  their  lances  and  stretch 
forth  their  hatchets,  following  the  Normans  as  they  go,  rejoicing 
in  the  success  of  their  scheme,  and  scattering  themselves  over  the 
plain.     And  the  English  meantime  jeered  and   insulted  their  foes 


THE    BATTLE    OF    HASTINGS  249 

with  words.  'Cowards,'  they  cried,  'you  Ccime  hither  in  an  evil 
hour,  wanting  our  lands,  and  seeking  to  seize  our  property,  fools 
that  ye  were  to  come !  Normandy  is  too  far  off,  and  you  ^\'ill  not 
easily  reach  it.  It  is  of  little  use  to  run  back ;  unless  you  can  cross 
the  sea  at  a  leap,  or  can  drink  it  dry,  your  sons  and  daughters  are 
lost  to  you. ' 

"The  Normans  bore  it  all;  but,  in  fact,  they  knew  not  what 
the  English  said :  their  language  seemed  like  the  baying  of  dogs, 
which  thej'  could  not  understand.  At  length  they  sto})ped  and 
turned  round,  determined  to  recover  their  ranks;  and  the  barons 
might  be  heard  crying  dex  aie!  for  a  halt.  Then  the  Normans 
resumed  their  former  position,  turning  their  faces  toward  the 
enemy ;  and  their  men  were  to  be  seen  facing  round  and  rusliing 
onward  to  a  fresh  melee,  the  one  party  assaulting  the  other;  tliis 
man  striking,  another  pressing  onward.  One  hits,  another  misses; 
one  flies,  another  pursues;  one  is  aiming  a  stroke,  while  another 
discharges  his  blow.  Norman  strives  with  Englishman  again,  and 
aims  his  blows  afresh.  One  flies,  another  pursues  swiftly:  the 
combatants  are  many,  the  plain  wide,  the  battle  and  the  melee 
fierce.  On  every  hand  they  fight  hard,  the  blows  are  heavy,  and 
the  struggle  becomes  fierce. 

"The  Normans  were  playing  their  part  well,  Avhen  an  English 
knight  came  rushing  up,  having  in  his  company  a  hundred  men, 
furnished  with  various  arms.  He  wielded  a  northern  hatchet, 
with  the  blade  a  full  foot  long,  and  was  well  armed  after  his  man- 
ner, being  tall,  bold,  and  of  noble  carriage.  In  the  front  of  the 
battle,  where  the  Normans  thronged  most,  he  came  bounding  on 
swifter  than  the  stag,  manj"  Normans  falling  before  him  and  his 
company.  He  rushed  straight  upon  a  Norman  who  was  armed 
and  riding  on  a  war-horse,  and  tried  with  his  hatchet  of  steel  to 
cleave  his  helmet ;  but  the  blow  miscarried,  and  the  sharp  blade 
glanced  down  before  the  saddle-bow,  driving  through  the  horse's 
neck  down  to  the  ground,  so  that  both  horse  and  master  fell  to- 
gether to  the  earth.  I  know  not  whether  the  Englishman  struck 
another  blow ;  but  the  Normans  who  saw  the  stroke  were  aston- 
ished, and  about  to  abandon  the  assault,  when  Roger  de  Mont- 
gomeri  came  galloping  up,  with  his  lance  set,  and  heeding  not  the 


250  GREAT    BATTLES    OF    ALL    NATIONS 

long-handled  ax  which  the  Englishman  wielded  aloft,  struck  him 
down,  and  left  him  stretched  on  the  ground.  Then  Roger  cried 
out,  'Frenchmen,  strike!  the  day  is  ours!'  And  again  a  fierce 
melee  was  to  be  seen,  with  manj-  a  blow  of  lance  and  sword ;  the 
English  still  defending  themselves,  killing  the  horses  and  cleaving 
the  shields. 

"There  was  a  French  soldier  of  noble  mien,  who  sat  his  horse 
gallantly.  He  spied  two  Englishmen  who  were  also  carrying  them- 
selves boldly.  They  were  both  men  of  great  worth,  and  had  be- 
come companions  in  arms  and  fought  together,  the  one  protecting 
the  other.  They  bore  two  long  and  broad  bills,  and  did  great 
mischief  to  the  Norinans,  killing  both  horses  and  men.  The  French 
soldier  looked  at  them  and  their  bills,  and  was  sore  alarmed,  for 
he  was  afraid  of  losing  his  good  horse,  the  best  that  he  had,  and 
would  willingly  have  turned  to  some  other  quarter,  if  it  would 
not  have  looked  hke  cowardice.  He  soon,  however,  recovered  his 
courage,  and,  spurring  his  horse,  gave  him  the  bridle,  and  gal- 
loped swiftly  forward.  Fearing  the  two  bills,  he  raised  his  shield, 
and  struck  one  of  the  Englishmen  with  his  lance  on  the  breast,  so 
that  the  iron  passed  out  at  his  back.  At  the  moment  that  he  fell, 
the  lance  broke,  and  the  Frenchman  seized  the  mace  that  hung 
at  his  right  side,  and  struck  the  other  Englishman  a  blow  that 
completely  fractured  his  skull. 

"On  the  other  side  was  an  Englishman  who  much  annoj^ed  the 
French,  continuallj*  assaulting  them  with  a  keen-edged  hatchet. 
He  had  a  helmet  made  of  wood,  which  he  had  fastened  down  to 
his  coat,  and  laced  round  his  neck,  so  that  no  blows  could  reach 
his  head.  The  ravage  he  was  making  was  seen  by  a  gallant  Nor- 
man knight,  who  rode  a  horse  that  neither  fire  nor  w^ater  could 
stop  in  its  career  when  its  master  urged  it  on.  The  knight  spurred, 
and  his  horse  carried  him  on  well  till  he  charged  the  Englishman, 
striking  him  over  the  helmet,  so  tiiat  it  fell  down  over  his  eyes; 
and  as  he  stretched  out  his  hand  to  raise  it  and  uncover  his  face, 
the  Norman  cut  off  his  right  hand,  so  that  his  hatchet  fell  to  the 
ground.  Another  Norman  sprang  forward  and  eagerly  seized  tlie 
prize  with  both  his  hands,  but  he  kept  it  little  space,  and  paid 
dearly  for  it ;  for,  as  he  stooped  to  pick  up  the  hatchet,  an  English- 


THE    BATTLE   OF    HASTINGS  251 

man  with  his  long-handled  ax  struck  him  over  the  back,  breaking 
all  his  bones,  so  that  his  entrails  and  lungs  gushed  forth.  The 
knight  of  the  good  horse  meantime  returned  without  injury;  but 
on  his  way  he  met  another  Englishman  and  bore  him  down  under 
his  horse,  wounding  him  grievously  and  trampling  him  altogether 
under  foot. 

"And  now  might  be  heard  the  loud  clang  and  cry  of  battle,  and 
the  clashing  of  lances.  The  English  stood  firm  in  their  barricades, 
and  shivered  the  lances,  beating  them  into  pieces  with  their  bills 
and  maces.  The  x^ToiTaans  drew  their  swords  and  hewed  down  the 
barricades,  and  the  English,  in  great  trouble,  fell  back  upon  their 
standard,  where  were  collected  the  maimed  and  wounded. 

"There  were  many  knights  of  Chauz  who  jousted  and  made 
attacks.  The  English  knew  not  how  to  joust,  or  bear  arms  on 
horseback,  but  fought  with  hatchets  and  bills.  A  man,  when  he 
Avanted  to  strike  with  one  of  their  hatchets,  was  obliged  to  hold 
it  with  both  his  hands,  and  could  not  at  the  same  time,  as  it  seems 
to  me,  both  cover  himself  and  strike  with  any  freedom. 

"The  English  fell  back  toward  the  standard,  which  was  upon 
a  rising  ground,  and  the  Normans  followed  them  across  the  valley, 
attacking  them  on  foot  and  horseback.  Then  Hue  de  Mortemer, 
with  the  Sires  D'Auviler,  D'Onebac,  and  Saint  Cler,  rode  up  and 
charged,  overthrowing  many. 

"Robert  Fitz  Erneis  fixed  his  lance,  took  his  shield,  and,  gal- 
loping toward  the  standard,  with  his  keen-edged  sword  struck  an 
Englishman  who  was  in  front,  killed  him,  and  then  drawing  back 
his  sword,  attacked  many  others,  and  pushed  straight  for  the 
standard,  trjnng  to  beat  it  down ;  but  the  English  surrounded  it 
and  killed  him  with  their  bills.  He  was  found  on  the  spot,  when 
they  afterward  sought  for  him,  dead  and  lying  at  the  standard's 
foot. 

"Duke  William  pressed  close  upon  the  Enghsh  with  his  lance, 
striving  hard  to  reach  the  standard  with  the  great  troop  he  led, 
and  seeking  earnestly  for  Harold,  on  whose  account  the  whole  war 
was.  The  Normans  follow  their  lord,  and  press  around  him,  they 
ply  their  blows  upon  the  English;  and  these  defend  themselves 
stoutly,  striving  hard  with  their  enemies,  returning  blow  for  blow. 


252  GREAT    BATTLES    OF    ALL    NATIONS 

"One  of  them  was  a  man  of  great  strength,  a  wrestler,  who  did 
great  mischief  to  the  Normans  with  his  hatchet ;  all  feared  him, 
for  he  struck  down  a  great  many  Normans.  The  duke  spurred 
on  his  horse,  and  aimed  a  blow  at  him,  but  he  stooped,  and  so 
escaped  the  stroke ;  then  jumijing  on  one  side,  he  lifted  his  hatchet 
aloft,  and,  as  the  duke  bent  to  avoid  the  blow,  the  Englishman 
boldly  struck  him  on  the  head,  and  beat  in  his  helmet,  though 
without  doing  much  injury.  He  was  very  near  falling,  however; 
but,  bearing  on  his  stirrups,  he  recovered  himself  immediately; 
jmd  when  he  thought  to  have  revenged  himself  upon  the  churl  by 
kilhng  him,  he  had  escaped,  dreading  the  duke's  blow.  He  ran 
back  in  among  the  English,  but  he  was  not  safe  even  there ;  for 
the  Normans,  seeing  him,  pursued  and  caught  him,  and  having 
pierced  him  through  and  through  with  their  lances,  left  him  dead 
on  the  ground. 

"Where  the  throng  of  the  battle  was  greatest,  the  men  of  Kent 
and  Essex  fought  wondrouslj^  well,  and  made  the  Normans  again 
retreat,  but  Avithout  doing  them  much  injury.  And  when  the 
duke  saw  his  men  fall  back,  and  the  English  triumphing  over 
them,  his  spirit  rose  high,  and  he  seized  his  shield  and  his  lance, 
which  a  vassal  handed  to  him,  and  took  his  post  by  his  standard, 

"Then  those  who  kept  close  guard  by  him,  and  rode  where  he 
rode,  being  about  a  thousand  armed  men,  came  and  rushed  with 
closed  ranks  upon  the  English ;  and  with  the  weight  of  their  good 
horses,  and  the  blows  the  knights  gave,  broke  the  press  of  the 
enemy,  and  scattered  the  crowd  before  them,  the  good  duke  lead- 
ing them  on  in  front.  Many  pursued  and  many  fled ;  many  were 
the  Englishmen  who  fell  around,  and  were  trampled  under  the 
horses,  crawling  upon  the  earth,  and  not  able  to  rise.  Many  of 
the  richest  and  noblest  men  fell  in  the  rout,  but  still  the  English 
rallied  in  places,  smote  down  those  whom  they  reached,  and  main- 
tained the  combat  the  best  they  could,  beating  down  the  men  and 
killing  the  horses.  One  Englishman  watched  the  duke,  and  plotted 
to  kill  him ;  he  would  have  struck  him  with  his  lance,  but  he  could 
not,  for  the  duke  struck  him  first,  and  felled  him  to  the  earth. 

"Loud  was  now  the  clamor,  and  great  the  slaughter;  many  a 
soul  then  quitted  the  body  it  inhabited.     The  living  marched  over 


THE    BATILH    OF    HASTINGS  253 

the  heaps  of  dead,  and  each  side  was  weaiy  of  striking.  He 
charged  on  who  could,  and  he  who  could  no  longer  strike  still 
pushed  forward.  The  strong  struggled  with  the  strong;  some 
failed,  others  triumphed;  the  cowards  fell  back,  the  brave  pressed 
on;  and  sad  was  his  fate  who  fell  in  the  midst,  for  he  had  little 
chance  of  rising  again;  and  many  in  truth  fell  who  never  rose  at 
all,  being  crushed  under  the  throng. 

"And  now  the  Xormans  had  pressed  on  so  far  that  at  last  they 
had  reached  the  standard.  There  Harold  had  remahied,  defend- 
ing himself  to  the  utmost;  but  he  was  sorely  wounded  in  his  eye 
by  the  arrow,  and  suffered  gnevous  pain  from  the  blow.  An 
armed  man  came  in  the  throng  of  the  battle,  and  struck  him  on 
the  ventaille  of  his  helmet,  and  beat  him  to  the  gi-ound ;  and  as 
he  sought  to  recover  himself  a  knight  beat  him  down  again,  strik- 
ing him  on  the  thick  of  his  thigh,  down  to  the  bone. 

''Gurth  saw  the  English  falling  around,  and  that  there  was  no 
remed}'.  He  saw  his  race  hastening  to  ruin,  and  despaii-ed  of  any 
aid;  he  would  have  fled,  but  could  not,  for  the  throng  continually 
increased.  And  the  duke  pushed  on  till  he  reached  him,  and  struck 
liim  with  great  force.  AVhether  he  died  of  that  blow  I  know  not, 
but  it  was  said  that  he  fell  under  it,  and  rose  no  more. 

"The  standard  was  beaten  down,  the  golden  standard  was 
taken,  and  Harold  and  the  best  of  his  friends  were  slain;  but 
there  was  so  much  eagerness,  and  throng  of  so  many  around, 
seeking  to  kill  him,  that  I  know  not  who  it  was  that  slew  him. 

"The  English  were  in  great  trouble  at  having  lost  their  king, 
and  at  the  duke's  having  conquered  and  beat  down  the  standard; 
but  they  still  fought  on,  and  defended  themselves  long,  and  in  fact 
till  the  day  drew  to  a  close.  Then  it  clearly  appeared  to  all  that 
the  standard  was  lost,  and  the  news  had  spread  throughout  the 
army  that  Harold,  for  certain,  was  dead;  and  all  saw  that  there 
was  no  longer  any  hope,  so  they  left  the  field,  and  those  fled 
who  could. 

' '  William  fought  well ;  many  an  assault  did  he  lead,  many  a 
blow  did  he  give,  and  many  receive,  and  many  fell  dead  under  his 
hand.  Two  horses  were  killed  under  him,  and  he  took  a  third 
when  necessary,  so  that  he  fell  not  to  the  ground,  and  lost  not  a 


254  GREAT    BATTLES    OF   ALL   NATIONS 

drop  of  blood.  But  whatever  any  one  did,  and  whoever  lived  or 
died,  this  is  certain,  that  William  conquered,  and  that  many  of  the 
English  fled  from  the  field,  and  many  died  on  the  spot.  Then  he 
returned  thanks  to  God,  and  in  his  pride  ordered  his  standard  to 
be  brought  and  set  up  on  high,  where  the  English  standard  had 
stood ;  and  that  was  the  signal  of  his  having  conquered  and  beaten 
down  the  standard.  And  he  ordered  his  tent  to  be  raised  on  the 
spot  among  the  dead,  and  had  his  metit  brought  thither,  and  his 
supper  prepared  there. 

"Then  he  took  off  his  armor;  and  the  barons  and  knights,  pages 
and  squires  came,  when  he  had  unstrung  his  shield ;  and  they  took 
the  helmet  from  his  head,  and  the  hauberk  from  his  back,  and  saw 
the  heavy  blows  upon  his  shield,  and  how  his  helmet  was  dented 
in.  And  all  greatly  wondered,  and  said,  'Such  a  baron  (ber)  never 
bestrode  war-horse,  nor  dealt  such  blows,  nor  did  such  feats  of 
arms ;  neither  has  there  been  on  earth  such  a  knight  since  Rollant 
and  Oliver.' 

"Thus  they  lauded  and  extolled  him  greatly,  and  rejoiced  in 
what  they  saw,  but  grie'ving  also  for  their  friends  who  were  slain 
in  the  battle.  And  the  duke  stood  naeanwhile  among  them,  of 
noble  stature  and  mien,  and  rendered  thanks  to  the  King  of  glory, 
through  whom  he  had  the  victory ;  and  thanked  the  knights  around 
him,  mourning  also  frequently  for  the  dead.  And  he  ate  and 
drank  among  the  dead,  and  made  his  bed  that  night  upon  the 
field. 

"The  morrow  was  Sunday;  and  those  who  had  slept  upon  the 
field  of  battle,  keeping  watch  around,  and  sujffering  great  fatigue, 
bestirred  themselves  at  break  of  day,  and  sought  out  and  buried 
such  of  the  bodies  of  their  dead  friends  as  they  might  find.  The 
noble  ladies  of  the  land  also  came,  some  to  seek  their  husbands, 
and  others  their  fathers,  sons,  or  brothers.  They  bore  the  bodies 
to  their  villages,  and  interred  them  at  the  churches;  and  the  clerks 
and  priests  of  the  country  were  ready,  and  at  the  request  of  their 
friends  took  the  bodies  that  were  found  and  prepared  graves  and 
lay  them  therein. 

"King  Harold  was  carried  and  buried  at  Varham;  but  I  know 
not  who  it  was  that  bore  him  thither,  neither  do  I  know  who 


THE    BATTLE    OF    HASTINGS 


255 


bui'ied  him.     Many  remained  on  the  field,  and  many  had  fled  in 
the  night. " '  ,  • 

Such  is  a  Norman  account  of  the  battle  of  Hastings,  which  does 
full  justice  to  the  valor  of  the  Saxons  as  well  as  to  the  skill  and 
bravery  of  the  \dctors.  It  is  indeed  evident  that  the  loss  of  the 
battle  by  the  English  was  owing  to  the  wound  which  Harold  re- 
ceived in  the  afternoon,  and  which  must  have  incapacitated  him 
from  effective  command.  When  we  remember  that  he  had  himself 
just  won  the  battle  of  Stamford  Bridge,  over  Harald  Hardrada,  by 
the  maneuver  of  a  feigned  flight,  it  is  impossible  to  suppose  that 
he  could  be  deceived  by  the  same  stratagem  on  the  part  of  the 
Normans  at  Hastings.  But  his  men,  when  deprived  of  his  control, 
would  very  naturally  be  led  by  their  inconsiderate  ardor  into  the 
pursuit  that  proved  so  fatal  to  them.  All  the  narratives  of  the 
battle,  however  much  they  vary  as  to  the  precise  time  and  manner 
of  Harold's  fall,  eulogize  the  generalship  and  the  personal  prowess 
which  he  displayed,  until  the  fatal  arrow  struck  him.  The  skill 
with  which  he  had  posted  his  army  was  proved  both  by  the  slaugh- 
ter which  it  cost  the  Normans  to  force  the  position,  and  also  by  the 
desperate  rally  which  some  of  the  Saxons  made  after  the  battle  in 
the  forest  in  the  rear,  in  which  they  cut  off  a  large  number  of  the 
pursuing  Normans.  This  circumstance  is  particular!)^  mentioned 
by  Wilham  of  Poitiers,  the  conqueror's  own  chaplain.  Indeed, 
if  Harold,  or  either  of  his  brothers,  had  survived,  the  remains  of 
the  Enghsh  army  might  have  formed  again  in  the  wood,  and  could 
at  least  have  effected  an  orderly  retreat,  and  prolonged  the  wai'. 
But  both  Gurth  and  Leofwine,  and  all  the  bravest  thanes  of  South- 
ern England,  lay  dead  on  Senlac,  around  their  fallen  king  and  the 
fallen  standard  of  their  country.  The  exact  number  that  perished 
on  the  Saxon's  side  is  unknown ;  but  we  read  that,  on  the  side  of 
the  victors,  out  of  sixty  thousand  men  who  l^ad  been  engaged  no 
less  than  a  fourth  perished.  So  well  had  the  English  billmen 
"plyed  the  ghastly  blow,"  and  so  sternly  had  the  Saxon  battle-ax 
cloven  Norman's  casque  and  mail.  The  old  historian  Daniel  justly 
as  well  as  forcibly  remarks,  "Thus  was  tried,  by  the  great  assize 
of  God's  judgment  in  battle,  the  right  of  power  between  the  En- 
glish and  Norman  nations;   a  battle  the  most  memorable  of  all 


256  GREAT    BATTLES    OF    ALL    NATIONS 

others;  and,  however  miserablj''  lost,  j^et  most  nobly  fought  on  the 
part  of  England." 

Many  a  pathetic  legend  was  told  in  after  years  respecting  the 
discovery  and  the  burial  of  the  corpse  of  our  last  Saxon  king.  The 
main  circumstances,  though  they  seem  to  vary,  are  perhaps  recon- 
cilable. Two  of  the  monks  of  Waltham  Abbey,  which  Harold  had 
founded  a  Uttle  time  before  his  election  to  the  throne,  had  accom 
panied  him  to  the  battle.  On  the  morning  after  the  slaughter, 
they  begged  and  gained  permission  of  the  conqueror  to  search  for 
the  body  of  their  benefactor.  The  Norman  soldiery  and  camp- 
followers  had  stripped  and  gashed  the  slain,  and  the  two  monks 
vainly  strove  to  recognize  from  among  the  mutilated  and  gory 
heaps  around  them  the  features  of  their  former  king.  They  sent 
for  Harold's  mistress,  Edith,  surnamed  "the  Fair,"  and  "the  swan- 
necked,"  to  aid  them.  The  eje  of  love  proved  keener  than  the 
eye  of  gratitude,  and  the  Saxon  lady  even  in  that  Aceldama  knew 
her  Harold. 

The  king's  mother  now  sought  the  victorious  Norman,  and 
begged  the  dead  body  of  her  son.  But  William  at  first  answered 
in  his  wrath  and  the  hardness  of  his  heart  that  a  man  who  had 
been  false  to  his  word  and  his  religion  should  have  no  other 
sepulcher  than  the  sand  of  the  shore.  He  added,  with  a  sneer, 
■'Harold  mounted  guard  on  the  coast  while  he  was  alive,  he  ma}* 
continue  his  guard  now  he  is  dead."  The  taunt  was  an  uninten- 
tional eulogy;  and  a  grave  washed  by  the  spraj'  of  the  Sussex 
waves  would  have  been  the  noblest  burial-place  for  the  martyr  of 
Saxon  freedom.  But  Harold's  mother  was  urgent  in  her  lamenta- 
tions and  her  prayers ;  the  conqueror  relented :  like  Achilles,  he 
gave  up  the  dead  body  of  his  fallen  foe  to  a  parent's  supplications, 
and  the  remains  of  King  Harold  were  deposited  with  regal  honors 
in  Waltham  Abbey. 

On  Christmas  day  in  the  same  year  William  the  Conqueror  was 
crowned  at  London  king  of  England.  [Creasy. 


KING  JOHN  AND  THE  DAUPHIN  AT  THE  BATTLE  OF  POITIERS 

Battles,  Volume  One,  Chapter  Tuxtvt 


CHAPTER   XII 
CRESSY,  POITIERS,  AND   AGINCOURT 

THE  GREAT  BATTLES  WAGED  BY  ENGLAND  AGAINST  FRANCE 
A.  D.   1346—1415 

THOUGH  in  England  the  existence  of  a  standing  army  is 
comparatively  modem,  yet  soldiers  were  there  enrolled  for 
temporary  service  abroad  under  the  feudal  system  from  the 
time  of  the  Conquest.  William  the  Conqueror  had  not  long  been 
seated  on  the  throne  of  England  before  he  conveyed  English  troops 
to  the  Continent  to  fight  against  the  French  king,  or  his  own  rebel- 
lious subjects  in  Normandy  and  Poitou,  These  soldiers  gained 
great  commendation  for  their  steadiness,  fidelity  and  gallantrj-  in 
the  field.  The  sons  of  the  Conqueror  made  a  still  more  frequent 
and  extensive  use  of  English  troops.  On  one  occasion,  when  Wil- 
liam II.,  surnamed  Rufus,  was  under  the  necessity  of  proclaiming 
his  ban  of  war  in  the  old  Saxon  form — ' '  Let  every  man  that  is  not 
a  man  of  nothing,  whether  he  live  in  burgh  or  out  of  burgh,  leave 
his  home  and  come" — thirty  thousand  stout  Englishmen  repaired 
to  the  place  appointed  for  the  muster.  In  the  year  1091,  when  the 
Red  King  went  into  Normand)',  his  army  consisted  chiefly  of  native 
English,  who  appear  to  have  been  employed  exclusively  as  infantrj-. 
At  a  very  early  period,  the  English,  serving  under  their  Nor- 
man and  Plantagenet  princes,  or  feudal  lords,  made  their  name 
and  prowess  known  on  the  Continent.  When  Duke  Robert,  brother 
of  William  II.  and  Henry  I.,  repaired  to  the  Hoh^  Land  with  the 
crusaders,  who  captured  Jerusalem  on  the  15th  of  July,  1099,  a 
great  number  of  English  and  some  Irish  followed  his  standard, 
and  gained  honor  in  fighting  with  the  turbaned  Saracens.  After 
I— Vol.  I.  (257) 


258  GREAT  BATTLES   OF   ALL   NATIONS 

ward,  at  the  battle  of  Tenchebrai,  where  Robert  and  his  brother 
Henry  I.  fought  against  each  other  for  the  Continental  dominions 
a£  the  family,  the  king  owed  his  decisive  victory  to  his  English 
army.  "This  battle,"  observes  an  old  chronicler,  "was  fought, 
and  Normandy  won,  upon  Saturday,  being  the  vigil  of  St.  Michael, 
even  the  same  day  forty  years  that  William  the  Bastard  set  foot 
on  England's  shores  for  his  conquest.  God  so  disposing  it  (saith 
Malmsbury)  that  Normandy  should  be  subjected  to  England  that 
very  day  wherein  England  was  subdued  to  Normandy."  "Without 
leaving  their  own  island,  the  English,  in  those  days,  could  have 
abundance  of  fighting,  for  Wales  continued  unsubdued  until  the 
time  of  Edward  I.,  and  with  Scotland  the  Enghsh  were  almost 
continually  at  war  until  the  accession  of  Jarnes  I.  These  circum- 
stances kept  up  the  use  of  arms,  and  the  habit  and  spirit  of  war, 
in  large  portions  of  the  population. 

During  the  incessant  wars  of  Henry  II.  on  the  Continent,  En- 
ghsh bowmen,  and  other  English  infantry,  always  formed  a  con- 
siderable portion  of  his  armies,  and,  with  scarcely  an  exception, 
these  armies  defeated  the  French,  and  marched  from  victory  to 
victory.  Under  the  lion-hearted  Richard  I.  hosts  of  English  were 
again  fighting  in  Palestine,  foremost  in  every  assault  and  distin- 
guished in  every  battle.  Their  blue  eyes,  fair  complexions,  and 
ruddy  cheeks,  are  noticed  by  all  the  foreign  chroniclers  who  wrote 
on  the  crusades.  More  than  six  centuries  before  Napoleon  Bona- 
parte was  foiled  at  the  siege  of  Acre  by  British  valor  and  skill — as 
he  bittsrly  said,  his  destiny  thwarted  by  an  English  post-captain — 
the  Enghsh  crusaders  signalized  themselves  under  the  same  old 
walls  and  ramparts,  and  an  Enghsh  army  was  halted  within  sight 
of  Jerusalem,  after  having  fought  and  won  the  battle  of  Jaffa. 

Throughout  the  tweKth  and  thirteenth  centuries  the  English 
full)^  established  their  reputation  as  one  of  the  bravest  and  most 
warlike  nations  in  Europe.  Whatever  may  have  been  the  evils  of 
the  feudal  system,  as  compared  with  the  improved  systems  of  gov- 
ernment which  have  followed  it,  there  is  abundant  evidence  that 
the  English  commonalty  were  better  fed  than  any  people  on  the 
continent  of  Europe.  Hence,  in  a  great  measure,  their  spirit  and 
alacrity,  and  that  superior  muscular  strength,  which  almost  invari- 


CRESSY,  POITIERS,  AND    AGINCOURT  259 

ably  gave  our  infantry  the  victory.  Under  that  greatest  of  English 
kings,  equall}'  renowned  in  war  and  statesmanship,  Edward  I,,  the 
English  were  again  engaged  in  Syria  and  Palestine,  distinguishing 
themselves  b}-  many  feats  of  arms,  and  adding  to  the  glory  of  the 
national  name. 

In  12T4,  after  Edward's  return  from  the  Holy  Land,  these 
steady  English  crossbowmen  saved  his  life  and  overthrew  the 
French  foot-soldiers  and  horsemen  in  the  so-called  "Little  War  of 
Chalons."  During  the  same  reign,  besides  being  engaged  in  Wales 
and  Scotland,  the  English  fought  in  the  Low  Countries.  But  it 
was  under  Edward  IIL,  whose  long  reign  extended  for  half  a  cent- 
ury from  the  year  1327,  that  English  arms  gained  their  greatest 
luster,  and  to  this  day  the  names  of  Cressy  and  Poitiers  arouse  in 
all  of  English  blood  some  of  our  proudest  national  memories.  The 
rivalry  between  England  and  France  never  allowed  any  long  dura- 
tion of  tranquillity,  and  in  the  year  1335  Edward  IIL  claimed  the 
French  throne  by  right  of  inheritance,  proclaiming  the  French 
king,  Phihp  VI.  (who  was  then  aiding  the  Scots),  a  usurper  and 
traitor.  Edward  went  over  to  the  Low  Countries,  but  as  long  as 
he  fought  with  foreign  mercenaries,  and  attacked  France  from  the 
side  of  Flanders,  he  was  unsuccessful.  However,  he  soon  changed 
both  his  troops  and  his  field  of  action.  In  1346,  Edward  collected 
a  fine  arm}',  consisting  solely  of  English,  Welsh,  and  Irish,  and 
landed  with  them  on  the  coast  of  Normandy,  near  Cape  la  Hogue, 
about  the  middle  of  July.  That  pro^^nce  was  defenseless,  for  Ed- 
ward's attack  had  been  expected  to  fall  upon  the  South.  In  the 
latter  direction,  the  Duke  of  Normandy  was  endeavoring,  with  the 
flower  of  the  French  army,  to  drive  the  English  from  Guienne. 
One  of  Edward's  principal  objects  was  to  create  a  diversion  which 
should  draw  the  French  out  of  that  province;  while  he  also  in- 
tended, by  crossing  the  Seine,  to  join  his  alUes,  the  Flemings,  who 
had  already  passed  the  French  border.  Having  taken  Caen  and 
other  places,  and  plundered  the  country,  Edward  marched  to  the 
left  bank  of  the  Seine,  intending  to  cross  that  river  at  Rouen ;  but, 
finding  the  French  king,  Philip,  in  superior  force,  he  continued  his 
march,  and,  sacking  Nantes,  marched  to  St.  Germain,  which,  to- 
gether with  St.  Cloud  and  Neuilly,  was  burned  to  the  ground 


2Co  GREAT   BATTLES    OF    ALL    NATIONS 

Still  Edward's  situation  was  critical,  as  he  was  separated  from 
his  auxiliaries  and  Philip  was  re-enforced  daily. 

Having  repaired  the  bridge  at  Poissy,  which  Philip  had  par- 
tially destroyed,  Edward  struck  his  tents,  and  advanced  as  if  he 
would  attack  Paris,  his  van  even  penetrating  to  the  suburbs  of  that 
capital.  This  bold  movement  obliged  the  French  to  march  over  to 
the  opposite  bank,  when  Edward  rapidly  crossed  to  the  right  bank, 
with  little  loss.  From  the  Seine  he  continued  his  march  toward 
the  river  Somme,  but  found  himself  confronted  bj*  the  French,  and 
failed  to  effect  a  crossing.  Meanwhile,  Philip,  who  had  now  one 
hundred  thousand  men  under  his  orders,  divided  his  force,  and, 
leaving  one  division  to  keep  the  English  in  check,  marched  with 
the  other  along  the  left  bank  of  the  Somme,  to  drive  them  toward 
the  sea.  So  close  was  he  upon  his  enemy  that  he  rested  one  night 
where  Edward  had  slept  only  two  hours  before.  That  evening  the 
English  reached  Oisement,  near  the  coast,  where  they  found  them- 
selves cooped  up  between  the  sea,  the  Somme,  and  the  division  of 
the  French  army  with  Philip,  which  was  six  times  more  numerous 
than  his  whole  force.  Efforts  were  made  by  the  English  to  dis- 
cover a  ford,  but  without  success.  Edward  then  ordered  certain 
prisoners  to  be  brought  before  him,  and  questioned  them  as  to  any 
fords  across  the  Somme  below  Abbeville,  offering  as  a  reward  to 
any  man  his  freedom,  and  that  of  twenty  of  his  companions. 
Thereupon  a  sutler  named  Gobin  Agace  stepped  forward  and  said 
there  was  a  place  a  little  lower  down,  called  Blanche  Taque  (from 
the  white  stones  presenting  a  hard  bottom),  which  was  fordable 
at  the  ebb  tide.  "The  king  of  England,"  says  Froissart,  "did  not 
sleep  much  that  night,  but,  rising  at  midnight,  ordered  his  trumpets 
to  sound." 

At  the  peep  of  day  the  army  set  out  from  the  town  of  Oisement 
under  the  guidance  of  Gobin  Agace.  It  soon  came  to  the  ford  of 
Blanche  Taque,  but  Edward  had  the  mortification  to  find  not  only 
that  the  tide  was  full,  but  that  the  opposite  bank  of  the  river  was 
lined  with  twelve  thousand  men,  under  the  command  of  a  doughty 
baron  named  Du  Fay.  He  was  obliged,  therefore,  to  wait  till  the 
tide  was  out.  Fortunately,  the  French  king,  Philip,  did  not  come 
up,  and  as  soon  as  the  river  was  fordable,  Edward  commanded  his 


CRESSV,  POITIERS,  AND    AGINCOURT  261 

marshals  to  cross.  Here  they  were  met  by  the  French  cavabry, 
and  a  fierce  conflict  took  place  in  the  water.  When  the  English 
had  overcome  this  opposition,  they  encountered  the  French,  in 
battle  array,  in  a  narrow  pass  which  led  from  the  ford  up  the 
right  bank  of  the  river.  Among  others  posted  there  was  a  strong 
body  of  Genoese  crossbowmen,  who  galled  them  sorely;  but  the 
English  archers  "shot  so  well  together"  that  they  cleared  the  bank, 
and  while  part  of  his  forces  pursued  Du  Fay,  Edward  encamped 
with  the  rest  in  the  pleasant  fields  between  Crotoy  and  Crec}-, 
anglicized  into  Cressy.  Philip  now  appeared  on  the  opposite  side 
of  the  ford,  where  Edward  had  so  long  waited,  but  he  was  too 
late.  As  the  tide  was  flowing,  he  thought  it  prudent  to  return 
up  the  river,  and  to  cross  it  by  the  bridge  of  Abbe\'ille. 

The  English  king,  encouraged  by  the  result  of  the  fight  at 
Blanche  Taque,  resolved  to  fight  the  whole  French  army  in  lii's 
present  position.  When  told  that  Philip  would  still  jjursue  huu, 
he  merelj'  said,  "AVe  ^vill  go  no  further.  I  have  good  reason  to 
wait  for  him  on  this  spot.  I  am  now  upon  the  lawful  inheritance 
of  my  lady-mother,  upon  the  lands  of  Ponthieu,  which  were  given 
to  her  as  her  marriage  portion,  and  I  am  resolved  to  defend  them 
against  my  adversary,  Philip  de  A^alois." 

Edward  was  outnumbered  as  eight  to  one,  but  his  generals  took 
up  an  advantageous  position  on  an  eminence  a  httle  in  rear  of  the 
village  of  Cressy.  While  his  men  busied  themselves  with  prepara- 
tions for  the  impending  conflict,  the  king  gave  a  supper  that  even- 
ing to  the  earls  and  barons,  and  then,  entering  his  oratory,  prayed 
God  to  bring  him  off  with  honor  if  he  should  fight  on  the  morrow. 
Rising  at  early  dawn,  he  and  his  son  Edward,  the  renowned  Black 
Prince,  heard  mass,  and  then  the  king  ordered  his  men,  who  had 
also  confessed,  to  arm  and  assemble,  each  under  his  proper  banner 
or  station,  which  had  been  carefully  marked  out  during  the  preced- 
ing day.  In  the  rear  of  his  army  he  inclosed  a  large  park,  near  a 
M'ood,  in  which  he  placed  all  his  baggage- wagons  and  his  horses; 
for  every  man-at-arms,  as  well  as  every  archer,  was  to  fight  that 
day  on  foot. 

The  English  armj''  was  marshaled  in  three  divisions.  The  first 
was  led  by  the  Prince  of  Wales,  a  boy  of  only  fifteen,  with  those 


262  GREAT   BATTLES    OF  ALL    NATIONS 

experienced  captains,  the  Earls  of  Warwick  and  Salisbury,  Sir 
John  Chandos  and  Sir  Thomas  Holland,  also  Lords  Lisle,  Stafford, 
and  many  other  nobles  and  knights.  The  division  consisted  of 
about  eight  hundred  men-at-arms,  two  thousand  archers,  and  one 
thousand  "Welsh  foot.  In  rear,  and  rather  on  their  flank,  stood  the 
second  division  of  eight  hundred  men-at-arms,  and  one  thousand 
tw^o  hundred  archers,  who  were  commanded  by  the  Earls  of  North- 
ampton and  Arundel,  the  Lords  de  Ros,  Willoughby,  and  others. 
The  third  division  stood  in  reserve  on  the  crest  of  a  hill  command- 
ing the  whole  army,  and  consisted  of  seven  hundred  men-at-arms, 
and  two  thousand  archers.  The  archers  of  each  division  formed 
in  front  in  the  shape  of  a  portcullis  or  harrow.  "When  they  were 
thus  all  arranged,  Edward,  mounted  on  a  small  palfrey,  with  a 
white  wand  in  his  hand,  rode  from  rank  to  rank,  exhorting  his 
officers  to  defend  his  honor  and  his  rights.  And,  says  the  old 
chronicler,  he  spoke  so  gently  and  cheerfully  that  those  who  were 
disheartened  were  comforted  at  hearing  him  and  looking  into  his 
confident  countenance.  Having  partaken  of  food  and  wine,  the 
soldiers  sat  down  in  their  ranks  on  the  ground,  with  their  helmets 
and  bows  before  them,  so  that  they  might  be  the  fresher  when 
their  enemies  should  arrive. 

After  his  march  and  countermarch  on  the  day  of  Blanche 
Taque,  Philip  rested  at  Abbeville,  where  he  lost  a  whole  day 
waiting  for  re-enforcements,  among  which  were  a  thousand  lances 
of  the  Count  of  Savoy,  who,  says  Froissart,  "ought  to  have  been 
there,  as  the  count  had  been  well  paid  for  them  at  Troyes,  in 
Champaign,  three  months  in  advance."  Philip  marched  rapidly 
on  from  AbbcAille  to  give  battle,  and  when  he  came  in  sight  of 
the  well-ordered  divisions  of  Edward,  his  men  being  tired,  and  his 
rearguard  far  behind,  he  decided  to  delay  the  battle  till  the  mor- 
row. Those  that  were  in  front  stopped,  but  those  behind  rode  on, 
saying  that  they  would  not  halt  until  they  were  as  forward  as  the 
first.  "When  the  van  perceived  the  rear  pressing  on  them,  they 
pushed  onward,  and  neither  the  king  nor  the  marshals  could  stop 
them ;  but  on  nearing  the  English  the  foremost  ranks  fell  back  in 
great  disorder,  which  alarmed  those  in  the  rear,  who  thought  they 
had  been  repulsed.     There  was  then  room  enough  for  those  behind 


CRESSY,  POITIERS,  AND    AGINCOURT  263 

to  pass  in  front,  had  they  been  willing  so  |^to  do,  "Some  did  so, 
and  some  remained  very  shy."  All  the  roads  between  Abbeville 
and  Cressy  were  covered  with  country  people,  who,  while  they 
were  yet  three  leagues  from  their  enemy,  drew  their  swords,  bawl- 
ing out,  "Kill!  kill!"  and -with  them  were  many  great  lords  that 
were  eager  to  show  off  their  prowess.  "There  is  no  man,"  says 
Froissart,  "unless  he  had  been  present,  that  can  imagine  or  truly 
record  the  confusion  of  that  day,  especially  the  bad  management 
and  disorder  of  the  French,  whose  troops  Avere  innumerable," 

The  nobles  of  France  advanced  each  as  he  thought  best,  and 
Philip  was  carried  forward  by  the  torrent.  "When  he  came  in  sight 
of  the  English  he  cried  out,  "Order  the  Genoese  forward,  and  begin 
the  battle  in  the  name  of  God  and  St.  Denis!"  These  Genoese 
were  famous  crossbowmen,  under  the  command  of  a  Doria  and  a 
Grimaldi,  and,  according  to  Froissart,  numbered  fifteen  thousand 
strong.  But  they  were  quite  fatigued,  having  that  day  marched 
six  leagues  on  foot  completely  armed  and  carrying  their  heavy 
crossbows.  Thus  they  told  the  Constable  that  they  were  not  in 
a  state  to  do  any  great  exploit  of  battle  that  day.  The  Count 
d'Alencon,  King  Philip's  brother,  hearing  this,  said,  "See  what 
we  get  by  employing  such  scoundrels,  who  fail  us  in  our  need." 
Nevertheless,  the  Italians  formed  up  and  led  the  van,  supported 
by  the  Count  d'Alencon,  with  a  numerous  body  of  cavalry  mag- 
nificently equipped. 

Meanwhile  a  heavy  storm  of  rain,  accompanied  bj'  thunder, 
which  was  preceded  by  a  great  flight  of  crows,  burst  upon  the 
rival  armies,  and  when  the  storm  cleared  off,  about  five  in  the 
afternoon,  the  sun  shone  forth  in  full  splendor.  His  rays  darted 
full  in  the  eyes  of  the  French,  but  the  English  had  the  sun  at  their 
backs.  "When  the  Genoese  approached  the  English  army,  they  set 
up  a  terrible  shout  to  strike  terror  into  their  hearts ;  but  the  En- 
glish yeomen  remained  motionless,  as  though  unconcerned.  The 
Genoese  sent  up  a  second  shout  and  advanced,  but  still  the  English 
stood  in  their  ranks ;  they  shouted  a  third  time,  and,  advancing  a 
little,  began  to  discharge  their  crossbows.  Then  the  English  moved, 
but  it  was  one  step  forward,  and  they  shot  their  arrows  with  such 
rapidity  and  vigor  that  the  air  was  darkened.     These  well-shot 


364  GREAT    BATTLES    OF    ALL    NATIONS 

arrows  pierced  shield  and  armor,  and  the  Genoese  could  not  stand 
them.  On  seeing  these  auxiharies  waver  and  then  fall  back,  the 
king  of  France  cried  out,  ''Kill  me  those  scoundrels,  for  they  stop 
our  way  without  doing  any  good."  And  at  these  words  the  French 
men-at-arms  laid  about  them,  kiUing  and  wounding  the  retreating 
Genoese.  All  this  increased  the  confusion;  and  stiU  the  English 
yeomen  shot  vigorously  into  the  crowd.  Many  of  their  arrows  fell 
among  d'Alencon's  cavalry,  and,  kilHng  and  wounding  many, 
made  the  horses  dash  into  the  Genoese,  "so  that  thej  could  never 
rally  or  get  up  again."  Having  freed  themselves  from  the  rabble- 
rout,  d'Alencon  and  the  Count  of  Flanders  skirted  the  English 
archers,  and  fell  upon  the  body  of  eight  hundred  men  at-arms, 
when  a  fierce  fight  ensued. 

The  second  division  of  the  EngHsh  now  moved  to  the  support 
of  the  Prince  of  Wales.  The  king  of  France  was  eager  to  support 
d'Alencon;  but  he  could  not  penetrate  a  hedge  of  English  archers 
which  formed  in  his  front.  Without  the  king's  forces,  d'Alencon, 
whose  command  consisted  of  French,  Germans,  Bohemians,  and 
Savoyards,  was  apparently  more  than  a  match  for  the  prince's 
division.  The  conflict  seemed  doubtful,  and  the  Prince  of  Wales 
dispatched  Sir  Thomas  Holland,  with  an  escort,  to  request  the  king 
to  send  a  re-enforcement,  as  he  could  not  hold  his  ground.  Cut- 
ting a  path  through  the  enemy's  ranks,  the  brave  knight  made  his 
way  to  the  summit  of  the  hill  where  Edward  was  stationed  with 
the  reserves.  The  king  asked  Sir  Thomas  Holland  whether  his 
son  was  kiUed,  or  wounded,  or  thrown  to  the  ground.  The  knight 
replied,  "No,  sire,  please  God;  but  he  is  hard  beset."  "Then," 
said  the  king,  "return  to  those  who  sent  you,  and  tell  them  they 
shall  have  no  help  from  me.  Let  the  boy  win  his  spurs,  for  I  am 
resolved,  if  it  please  God,  that  this  day  be  his,  and  that^the  honors 
of  it  be  given  all  to  him,  and  to  those  to  whose  care  I  have  in- 
trusted him."  When  Sir  Thomas  Holland,  on  his  return,  reported 
this  message,  they  were  all  greatly  encouraged,  and,  says  Froissart, 
repented  of  having  sent  him. 

Soon  after  this  d'Alencon  was  killed,  and  his  troops  were  scat- 
tered. The  king  of  France  made  several  brilliant  charges,  but  was 
repulsed  each  time  with  great  loss ;  his  horse  was  killed  under  him 


CRESSY,  POITIERS,   AND    AGINCOURT  265 

by  an  English  archer,  and  the  bravest  of  his  nobles  and  knights 
fell  around  him.  Night  now  set  in,  and  at  the  hour  of  vespers 
there  only  remained  with  him  some  sixty  men.  John  of  Hainault, 
who  had  once  remounted  the  king,  now  said,  "Sire,  withdraw,  it 
is  time;  do  not  sacrifice  yourself  foolishlj-.  If  you  have  lost  this 
time,  you  may  win  on  some  other  occasion."  And  so  saying,  says 
the  chronicler,  he  laid  hold  of  his  bridle-rein  and  led  him  away  by 
force.  And  thus  ended  one  of  the  most  memorable  days  in  English 
historj'- — Saturday,  the  2 (3th  August,  1346.  In  all  our  island  story 
there  is  no  greater  military  achievement  recorded  than  this  first 
victory  of  an  English  army  over  foes  outnumbering  them  in  a  ratio 
that  seemed  to  render  success  an  impossibility. 

After  their  victory,  the  English  soldiers  made  great  fires  and 
lighted  torches  because  of  the  darkness  of  the  night.  And  then 
King  Edward  came  down  from  his  post,  and,  in  front  of  his  whole 
army,  took  the  Prince  of  Wales  in  his  arms,  kissed  him,  and  said, 
"Sweet  son,  God  give  you  good  perseverance!  You  are  my  true 
son,  for  loj^ally  have  you  acquitted  yourself  this  day,  and  worthy 
are  you  of  a  crown."  Young  Edward,  says  Froissart,  bowed  \evy 
lowly,  and,  humbling  himself,  gave  all  the  honor  to  the  king  his 
father. 

Cannon  were  employed  at  the  battle  of  Cressy,  and  a  contempo- 
rarj'  writer,  Giovanni  Villani,  in  his  "History  of  Florence,"  relates 
the  circumstance,  and  adds  that  they  did  considerable  execution, 
though  Froissart  makes  no  mention  of  them. 

On  the  folloAving  Sunday  morning  a.  fog  arose,  so  that  the  En- 
glish could  scarcely  see  the  length  of  half  an  acre  before  them. 
The  king  sent  out  a  column  of  five  hundred  lancers  and  two  thou- 
sand archers  to  reconnoiter,  and  learn  whether  there  were  any 
French  collecting  near  them.  The  English  column  soon  found 
itself  in  the  midst  of  a  body  of  militia  from  Beauvais  and  Rouen, 
who,  wholly  ignorant  of  what  had  happened,  had  marched  all 
night  to  overtake  the  French  arm5^  Mistaking  them  for  their 
coimtrymen,  they  hastened  to  join  them,  and  before  they  found 
out  their  mistake  the  English  fell  upon  them  and  slew  a  large 
number.  Proceeding  by  a  different  road,  the  English  eiicountered 
a  fresh  force,  imder  the  archbishop  of  Rouen  and  the  Grand  Prior 


266  GREAT    BATTLES    OF    ALL    NATIONS 

of  France,  who  were  also  ignorant  of  the  defeat  of  the  French,  for 
they  had  heard  that  the  king  would  not  fight  till  the  Sunday-.  A 
second  battle  ensued ;  but  the  enemy  could  not  cope  with  men  in- 
spirited with  success,  who  held  themselves  invincible.  The  two 
spiritual  lords  were  killed,  and  only  a  few  of  their  men  escaped  by 
flight.  Other  bodies  of  troops  were  encountered,  and  all  were  put 
to  the  sword.  On  returning  to  headquarters  the  English  troops 
found  King  Edward  coming  from  mass ;  for  during  all  these  scenes 
of  carnage  he  never  neglected  the  ofaces  of  religion.  He  then  sent 
to  examine  the  dead,  and  learn  what  French  lords  had  fallen.  The 
Lords  Cobham  and  Stafford  were  charged  with  this  duty,  and  they 
took  with  them  three  heralds  to  recognize  the  ^rms,  and  two  secre- 
taries to  write  down  the  names.  The}'  remained  all  that  day  on 
the  field,  returning  as  the  king  was  sitting  down  to  supper,  when 
they  reported  that  they  had  found  the  bodies  of  eleven  princes, 
eighty  barons,  one  thousand  two  hundred  knights,  and  about  thirty 
thousand  of  "the  baser  sort."  Among  the  princes  and  nobles  that 
fell  were  Philip's  own  brother,  the  Count  d'Alencon,  the  dukes  of 
Lorraine  and  Bourbon,  the  counts  of  Flanders,  Blois,  St.  Pol  and 
Aumale.  But  the  most  remarkable  of  the  slain  was  the  old  and 
blind  king  of  Bohemia.  On  hearing  that  his  son  was  dangerously 
wounded  and  forced  to  abandon  the  field,  and  that  nothing  could 
resist  the  Black  Prince,  the  king  resolved  to  charge;  and  placing 
himself  between  two  knights,  whose  bridles  were  interlaced  on 
either  side  of  his,  he  rode  into  the  fray  and  fell.  His  crest,  three 
ostrich  feathers  with  the  motto  "Ich  dien"  (I  serve),  was  adopted 
by  Prince  Edward,  and  has  ever  since  been  borne  by  the  princes 
of  "Wales. 

On  the  Monday  morning  the  king  of  England  ordered  the  bodies 
of  the  nobles  and  knights  to  be  removed  from  the  ground  and  car- 
ried to  a  neighboring  monastery,  there  to  be  buried  in  holy  ground. 
And  he  made  it  kno^vn  to  the  people  of  the  country  that  he  gave 
them  three  days'  truce,  that  they  might  clear  the  field  of  Cressy 
and  inter  all  the  dead.  Edward  then  marched  off  to  the  north 
toward  Calais,  keeping  near  the  coast. 

On  Thursday,  the  31st  of  August,  five  days  after  the  great 
battle  of  Cressy,  Edward  sat  down  before  Calais  and  began  his 


CRESSY,   POITIERS,  AND    AGINCOURT  267 

famous  siege  of  that  strong  and  important  place — a  siege,  or  rather 
a  blockade,  which  lasted  nearly  a  year,  and  was  enlivened  by 
many  brilliant  feats  of  arms.  The  English  fleet  of  eighty  sail, 
under  the  Earl  of  "Warwick,  swept  the  Channel,  and  the  French 
ships  attempting  to  revictual  Calais  were  defeated,  one-half  being 
Slink  and  the  remainder  dispersed. 

An  immediate  consequence  of  the  victory  at  Cressy  was  the 
withdrawal  of  the  Duke  of  Normandy  from  Guienne,  where  Henry, 
earl  of  Lancaster,  was  almost  reduced  to  extremities,  notwith- 
standing the  gallant  assistance  of  Sir  Walter  Manny  of  Hainault, 
who  had  marched  some  troops  from  Brittany  to  Gascony.  The 
English  took  possession  of  Chateau  Neuf,  Sauveterre,  Poitiers, 
and  many  other  towns,  and  the  country  of  Poitou  and  Aquitaine 
fell  to  their  arms. 

Calais  surrendered  on  the  3d  of  August,  1347,  and  on  the  fol- 
lowing day,  Edward  and  his  queen,  Philippa,  rode  into  the  city  on 
horseback  to  the  sound  of  martial  music.  Mainly  through  the  in- 
tervention and  good  offices  of  the  pope,  a  truce  was  concluded  be- 
tween France  and  England,  and  this  truce  was  gradually  prolonged 
for  the  space  of  six  years. 

To  commemorate  the  victory  of  Cressy,  and  to  reward  his  gallant 
commanders,  King  Edward  III.,  on  his  return  to  England,  insti- 
tuted the  Order  of  the  Garter,  and  the  first  recipients  were  those 
two  doughty  knights.  Sir  John  Chandos  and  Sir  Thomas  Holland, 
and  many  nobles,  including  Lancaster,  "Warwick,  and.  Stafford. 

In  the  meantime  King  Philip  died,  and  was  succeeded  by  his 
son  John,  duke  of  Normandy.  The  peace  between  the  two  coun- 
tries was  only  nominal,  and  in  1354  war  was  again  declared,  John 
being  driven  into  the  fatal  struggle  by  the  will  of  his  own  subjects. 

It  is  idle  to  tax  our  early  kings  and  rulers  with  being  solely 
responsible  for  the  wars  of  the  past.  Their  people  were  in  most 
instances  equally  to  blame.  Nearly  every  unwarlike  sovereign  was 
despised,  if  not  dethroned  and  murdered.  These  early  wars  were 
due  to  a  popular  impulse,  and  even  down  to  our  own  days  every 
war  has  been  eminently  popular  in  its  commencement,  however 
much  the  people  may  have  afterward  repined  at  its  duration  and 
expense. 


268  GREAT    BATTLES    OF   ALL    NATIONS 

Early  in  1355  the  Black  Prince  opened  tlie  campaign  in  the 
south  of  France.  From  Bordeaux  he  marched  to  the  foot  of  the 
Pyrenees,  burning  and  destroying;  thence  he  turned  northward, 
and  ravaged  the  coimtry  as  far  as  Toulouse.  He  then  proceeded 
to  the  southeast,  to  the  wealthy  cities  of  Carcassone  and  Narbonne, 
both  of  which  he  plundered  and  burned,  and  thence,  loaded  with 
booty,  got  safely  back  to  Bordeaux.  A  simultaneous  movement 
made  by  his  father  in  the  north  of  France  proved  a  failure ;  for  the 
country  was  cleared  of  everything  before  his  approach.  Eang 
John,  though  at  the  head  of  a  numerous  army,  would  not  fight, 
and  Edward  was  obliged  to  turn  back  upon  Calais  through  want 
of  provisions. 

In  July,  1355,  the  Black  Prince  took  the  field  with  about  four- 
teen thousand  men,  including  a  body  of  Enghsh  archers,  the  rest 
being  chiefly  Gascons.  The  pnnce's  plan  seems  to  have  been 
merely  to  repeat  the  plundering,  devastating  expedition  of  the 
preceding  year.  By  rapid  marches  he  overran  Limousin  and 
Auvergne,  and  penetrated  mto  Berri,  in  the- very  heart  of  France. 
He  advanced  so  far  that  he  "came,"  says  the  chronicle,  "to  the 
good  city  of  Bourges,  where  there  was  a  grand  skirmish  at  one  of 
the  gates."  He  found  Bourges  too  strong  for  him,  but  took  Vier- 
son  by  storm,  and  burned  Romorantin,  a  town  about  ten  leagues 
from  Blois.  The  king  of  France  advanced  from  Chartres,  and, 
crossing  the  Loire  at  Blois,  made  for  the  city  of  Poitiers.  The 
Black  Prince  had  so  exasperated  the  French  that  not  a  man  could 
be  found  to  give  him  information  of  John's  march;  and  in  utter 
ignorance  he  turned  to  the  southwest,  and  marched  also  for  Poi- 
tiers. 

On  the  17tli  of  September  the  English  van  came  unexpectedly 
upon  the  rear  of  the  great  French  army,  at  a  village  within  two 
short  leagues  of  Poitiers;  and  Edward's  scouts  soon  afterward 
discovered  that  the  whole  surrounding  country  swarmed  with  the 
enemy,  and  that  his  retreat  toward  Gascony  was  cut  off.  "God 
help  us,"  said  the  Black  Prince,  "we  must  now  consider  how  we 
can  best  fight  them."  The  small  English  army  numbered  only 
some  eight  thousand  men,  of  whom  two  thousand  were  men-at-arms 
and  four  thousand  archers.     But  the  position  they  had  taken  up 


CRESSY,  POITIERS,  AND    AGINCOURT  269 

was  very  strong,  and  displayed  the  possession  of  military  skill  by 
the  leaders,  of  whom  the  chief  were  Sir  John  Chandos,  Sir  James 
Audley,  Sir  Walter  Manny,  and  Sir  Eustache  of  Ambreticourt. 
The  small  army  was  posted  on  the  scarped  face  of  a  hill  tangled 
■with  vines  twisted  into  bundles,  and  strengthened  with  banks, 
hedges,  and  ditches,  the  position  being  only  assailable  by  a  single 
lane,  along  which  only  four  horsemen  could  advance  abreast.  The 
banks  were  lined  with  the  archers,  and  in  the  rear  the  men-at-arms 
were  drawn  up. 

On  the  following  morning,  Sunday,  the  18th  September,  John 
drew  out  his  host  in  order  of  battle,  numbering,  it  is  said,  sixty 
thousand  horse,  besides  foot.  At  this  moment  a  legate  of  the  pope, 
the  Cardinal  Perigord,  arrived  on  the  field,  and  implored  the  French 
king  to  avoid  the  carnage  which  must  inevitably  ensue.  John  re- 
luctantly consented  that  the  cardinal  should  proceed  to  the  English 
camp,  and  represent  to  the  prince  the  great  danger  in  which  he 
stood.  "Save  my  honor,"  said  the  Black  Prince,  "and  the  honor  of 
my  army,  and  I  will  Usten  to  any  reasonable  terms."  The  cardinal 
answered,  "Fair  son,  you  say  well,  and  I  will  endeavor  to  procure 
you  such  conditions."  If  this  prince  of  the  church  failed,  it  was 
no  fault  of  his ;  for  all  that  Sunday  he  rode  from  one  army  to  the 
other,  exerting  himself  to  the  utmost  to  procure  a  truce.  The 
prince,  whose  troops  had  tasted  no  food  for  two  days,  offered  to 
restore  all  the  gold  and  plunder  taken  in  the  foray,  with  the  towns 
and  castles  he  had  captured,  also  to  yield  up  all  prisoners  without 
ransom,  and  to  swear  that  he  would  not  for  the  next  seven  years 
bear  arms  against  the  king  of  France.  But  John,  too  confident 
in  his  numerical  superiority,  would  not  agree  to  these  terms;  but, 
goaded  by  Renard,  bishop  of  Chalons,  demanded  the  surrender, 
without  terms,  of  the  prince  and  one  hundred  of  his  bravest  knights. 

All  Sunday  was  spent  in  the  negotiations,  and  meanwhile  the 
English  army  were  engaged  digging  ditches  and  throwing  up 
banks.  They  also  arranged  their  baggage- wagons  so  as  to  form 
a  barricade,  as  had  been  done  at  Cressy.  On  the  following  morn- 
ing, Monday,  September  19th,  the  battle  began  by  a  charge  of 
three  hundred  picked  cavalry  along  the  lane  to  force  the  English 
position ;   but  such  a  flight  of  arrows  came  from  the  hedges  that 


2/0 


GREAT  BATTLES   OF   ALL   NATIONS 


they  were  soon  brought  to  a  pause,  and  at  last  were  compelled  to 
turn  and  flee,  leaving  the  lane  choked  up  with  their  dead,  and 
wounded,  and  their  fallen  horses.  The  two  marshals  of  France, 
Andrehan  and  Clermont,  led  the  attack,  but  the  former  was  un- 
horsed and  taken  prisoner  at  the  outset  by  a  bowman,  and  the 
latter,  who  penetrated  through  the  archers,  was  slain  in  single 
combat  by  Sir  John  Chandos. 

After  this  success  Edward  became  the  assailant.  Six  hundred 
English  bowmen  suddenly  showed  on  the  flanks  of  the  division  led 
by  the  Duke  of  Normandj^,  which  was  advancing  to  the  attack. 
"To  say  the  truth,"  quoth  Froissart,  "these  EngUsh  archers  were 
of  infinite  service  to  their  army,  for  they  shot  so  thickly  and  so 
well  that  the  French  did  not  know  which  way  to  turn  them- 
selves." The  Frenchmen  reeled  under  the  storm  of  arrows,  then 
broke  and  fled,  and  the  Duke  of  Normandy,  accompanied  by  the 
lords  of  Touraine  and  Poitiers,  ^vith  eight  hundred  horsemen,  rode 
off  the  field  toward  Chavigny.  Now  was  the  opportunity  for  the 
two  thousand  knights  and  men-at-arms,  under  the  Black  Prince, 
who,  mounting  their  horses,  gave  a  shout  of  "St.  George  for 
Guiennel"  Sir  John  Chandos  said  to  the  prince,  "Sire,  ride  for- 
ward; the  day  is  yours!  Let  us  address  oui'selves  to  our  adversary 
the  king  of  France,  for  in  that  part  lies  all  the  strength  of  the  en- 
terprise. Well  I  know  that  his  valiancy  will  not  permit  him  to 
flee,  and  he  will  remain  with  us,  please  God  and  St.  George." 
Then  the  prince  said  to  his  standard-bearers,  "Advance  banners, 
in  the  name  of  God  and  St.  George!"  They  went  through  the 
lane  and  charged  across  the  open  ground  with  dreadful  shock. 
The  king,  accompanied  by  his  son  Philip,  afterward  Duke  of  Bur- 
gundy, stood  firm  at  the  head  of  his  dismounted  squadrons,  the 
flower  of  French  chivalry,  who  shouted  back  their  war-cry,  "Mont- 
joie  St.  Denis!"  but  man  and  horse  went  to  the  ground,  and  the 
slaughter  was  terrible.  The  Black  Prince  then  charged  a  body  of 
German  cavalry,  who  were  soon  put  to  flight.  But  even  here  it 
seems  to  have  been  rather  the  arrow  of  the  English  yeomanry  than 
the  lance  of  the  knight  that  gained  the  advantage. 

The  victory  was  rendered  complete  by  the  capture  of  the  French 
king  himself.     John,  with  his  son,  a  boy  of  sixteen,  by  his  side. 


CRESSY.  POITIERS,  AND   AGINCOURT  271 

fought  desperately,  battle-ax  in  hand,  until  he  received  two  wounds 
in  the  face,  and  was  beaten  to  the  ground.  But  he  rose,  and  still 
strove  to  defend  himself,  while  the  EngHsh  and  Gascons  pressed 
upon  him,  crying,  "SuiTender!"  They  would  have  killed  him,  but 
a  man  of  gigantic  stature,  Sir  Dennis  of  Morbecque,  an  outlawed 
knight  of  Picardy,  burst  through  the  crowd,  and  said  to  the  king, 
in  French,  ''Sire,  surrender." 

The  king  replied,  "To  whom  shall  I  surrender?  Show  me  my 
cousin,  the  Prince  of  Wales!" 

"He  is  not  here,"  repUed  Sir  Dennis,  "but  siu-render  to  me, 
and  I  will  conduct  you  to  him." 

On  learning  his  name.  King  John  gave  him  his  right-hand 
glove,  and  said,  "I  surrender  to  you." 

There  was  much  crowding  and  struggling  round  the  king,  as 
many  claimed  him  as  their  captive,  but  at  length  Lords  Warwick 
and  Cobham  came  on  the  scene,  and  removed  his  majesty  from  a 
position  of  much  danger.  Dismounting  from  their  chargers,  these 
nobles  saluted  him  with  profound  respect,  and  conducted  him,  with 
his  son  Philip,  to  the  Prince  of  Wales,  who  received  his  illustrious 
captive  with  the  greatest  modesty  and  respect,  treating  him  with 
all  the  courtesy  of  the  most  perfect  chivalry.  He  invited  him  to 
supper,  waited  on  him  at  table,  as  his  superior  in  age  and  dignity, 
cheered  his  spirits,  and  praised  his  valor,  which  had  gained  the 
admiration  of  both  armies. 

Among  the  French  leaders  killed  were  Lord  Robert  of  Duras, 
nephew  of  Cardinal  Perigord,  and  the  two  chief  French  knights. 
Sir  Eustache  de  Ribaumont  and  Sir  Geoffrey  de  Chagny.  Of  the 
two  marshals,  d'Andrehan  was  womided  and  taken  prisoner,  and 
Clermont  was  slain.  Among  the  prisoners,  besides  the  king  and 
his  son  Philip,  were  the  Prince  James  of  Bourbon  and  John  d'Ar- 
tois,  and  many  nobles,  including  d'Estampes,  Damartin,  Gravill, 
and  Partney. 

The  day  after  the  great  victory  at  Poitiers,  the  Black  Prince 
continued  his  march,  and  passing  through  Poitiers  and  Saintonge, 
without  meeting  with  any  resistance,  for  the  French  nowhere  ral- 
lied to  rescue  their  king,  crossed  the  Garonne,  and  presently  came 
to  Bordeapx,  where  he  safely  lodged  all  his  prisoners.     He  then 


272  GREAT    BATTLES    OF    ALL   NATIONS 

concluded  a  truce  for  two  years  with  the  Dauphin  Charles,  now 
appointed  regent  of  France,  and  in  the  spring  returned  to  England, 
taking  King  John  and  Prince  Philip  with  him. 

Their  entrance  int(j  London,  on  the  24th  of  April,  1357,  was 
magnificent.  The  king  of  France  was  mounted  on  a  cream-colored 
charger,  richly  caparisoned ;  while  the  Prince  of  Wales  rode  by  his 
side,  on  a  small  black  paKrey.  But  the  former  could  scarcely  be 
flattered  by  being  made  the  principal  figure  in  such  a  procession. 
The  king  of  England  received  John  with  all  the  honors  due  to  a 
crowned  head.  Two  legates  of  the  pope  followed  King  John  and 
the  Prince  of  Wales  to  London,  and  there  labored  to  promote  an 
amicable  arrangement. 

At  length  Edward  III.  consented  to  waive  his  claim  to  the 
French  crown,  and  to  Uberate  John,  on  condition  of  receiving  a 
great  ransom  and  the  restoration  of  all  the  provinces  which  had 
belonged  to  Henry  11, ,  to  be  held  in  separate  sovereignty,  without 
any  feudal  dependence  on  the  French  king.  John  hesitated ;  but 
meanwhile,  during  his  captivity,  France  fell  into  a  frightful  state 
of  anarchy.  The  streets  of  Paris  ran  with  blood,  and  in  the 
provinces  the  revolted  peasantry  were  committing  their  horrible 
jacquerie,  massacring  the  nobles,  men,  women  and  children, 
and  plundering  and  burning  their  castles. 

The  stubborn  pride  of  John  at  length  gave  way,  and  he  signed 
the  treaty  of  peace  as  dictated  by  Edward.  But  the  French  nation, 
divided  as  it  was,  unanimously  rejected  it.  Edward,  enraged  at 
what  he  termed  the  bad  faith  of  the  enemy,  passed  over  into  France 
in  the  autumn  of  1359,  with  an  army  more  numerous  than  any  he 
had  hitherto  employed  on  the  Continent.  From  his  convenient 
landing-place  at  Calais,  he  poured  his  irresistible  forces  through 
Artois  and  Picardy,  and  laid  siege  to  Rheims.  \^ath  the  intention, 
it  is  said,  of  being  crowned  king  of  France  in  tliat  city,  where  such 
ceremony  was  usually  performed.  But  the  Avinter  season  and  the 
strength  of  the  place  baffled  his  efforts,  and  after  losing  seven  or 
eight  weeks,  he  raised  the  siege  and  fell  upon  Burgundy.  The 
duke  was  forced  to  pay  fifty  thousand  marks,  and  to  engage  to 
remain  neutral. 

From  Burgundy  Edward  marched  upon  Paris,  and,  on  the  last 


CRESSY,  POITIERS,  AND    AGINCOURT  273 

day  of  Maich,  1360,  the  English  encamped  in  front  of  that  capital. 
They,  however,  were  not  strong  enough  to  besiege  Paris;  and  as 
the  Dauphin  wisely  declined  a  challenge  to  come  out  and  fight, 
and  provisions  failed,  Edward  returned  toward  Brittany.  Great 
numbers  of  men  and  horses  died  from  want,  and  Edward  agreed 
to  an  armistice;  and  on  the  8th  of  May,  1360,  peace  was  concluded 
by  the  treaty  of  Bretign}'',  a  village  near  Chartres. 

The  Black  Prince,  after  a  brief  interval,  repaired  to  Spain,  to 
reinstate  on  his  throne  Pedro,  surnamed  "the  Cruel,"  king  of  Cas- 
tile, who  had  been  dispossessed  by  his  half-brother,  Don  Enrique, 
called  "the  Bastard."  With  thirty  thousand  men,  Edward  crossed 
the  Pyrenees,  marching,  in  the  midst  of  winter  snow  and  storms, 
through  Roncesvalles,  the  famed  scene  of  the  "dolorous  rout"  of 
Charlemagne  and  all  his  paladins — the  deep  and  dangerous  valley 
which,  after  four  centuries  and  a  half,  was  threaded  in  a  con- 
trary direction  by  a  victorious  British  army  under  the  Duke  of 
Wellington. 

Besides  his  English  and  Gascon  troops,  the  Black  Prince  had 
under  his  command  "free  companions,"  as  they  were  termed,  or 
mercenaries  and  adventurers  of  many  European  nationalities.  The 
chief  English  generals,  besides  Edward,  were  his  young  brother, 
John  of  Gaunt,  duke  of  Lancaster,  Sir  John  Chandos,  Sir  Hugh 
Calverly,  Sir  Thomas  Felton,  and  others.  On  the  3d  of  April, 
1367,  the  Black  Prince  fought  a  great  battle  between  Navarette 
and  Najar,  with  an  army  three  times  more  numerous  than  his  own. 
The  combat  was  begun  by  the  young  Duke  of  Lancaster,  who, 
emulous  of  the  military  fame  of  his  elder  brother,  Edward,  furi- 
ously attacked  the  French  and  Aragon  troops  led  by  Du  Gueschn, 
Constable  of  France.  The  Black  Prince,  meanwhile,  advanced 
against  the  division  led  by  Don  Tello,  and  when  his  impetuous 
charge  broke  the  alHed  force,  the  EngHsh  and  Gascon  footmen 
came  up  and  completed  their  discomfiture.  Edward  then  routed  the 
third  division,  commanded  by  Don  Enrique,  who  three  times  rallied 
his  hosts,  which  finally  broke  and  fled,  losing  thousands  in  their 
flight,  to  the  banks  of  the  Ebro.  The  Castilians,  fighting  for  Don 
Enrique,  had  slings  similar  to  those  used  against  the  Romans  by 
the   ancient   inhabitants   of    Spain,  with   which   they   hurled    big 


274  GREAT    BATTLES    OF  ALL    NATIONS 

stones  watli  such  force  as  to  stun  horses  and  men,  and  break  hel- 
mets. But  the  English  archers,  "as  was  their  wont,"  shot  briskly 
with  their  bows,  "to  the  great  annoyance  and  death  of  the  Span- 
iards." The  Spanish  king  wanted  to  massacre  all  the  prisoners, 
but  this  was  prevented  by  the  Black  Prince.  Among  the  .leaders 
taken  were  Sancho,  brother  of  Enrique,  Bertram  du  Guesclin, 
constable  of  Spain,  and  Andrehan,  marshal  of  France. 

In  the  month  of  July,  1367,  Edward  recrossed  the  Pyrenees, 
and  led  his  army  back  to  Bordeaux,  where  he  governed  the  south- 
ern provinces  of  France  for  his  father,  and  with  his  wife  and 
cousin,  Joan,  "the  Fair  Maid  of  Kent" — her  first  husband,  Sir 
Thomas  Holland,  earl  of  Kent,  being  dead — maintained  as  splen- 
did a  court  as  any  in  Europe  at  that  period. 

So  soon  as  he  was  able,  Charles,  the  French  king,  renewed  the 
war,  and  invaded  the  territories  which  had  been  ceded  to  Edward 
by  the  treaty  of  Bretigny.  Charles  carefully  avoided  a  general 
battle  with  the  English ;  for  so  great  was  the  fame  of  the  Black 
Prince  and  his  troops  that  no  French  army  would  have  dared  to 
face  them. 

But  the  Black  Prince  had  brought  with  him  from  Spain  a  dread- 
ful fever,  which  was  rapidly  undermining  his  constitution.  Hop- 
ing to  derive  benefit  from  the  air  of  his  native  country,  he  returned 
to  England,  leaving  the  command  in  the  south  of  France  to  his 
brother,  the  young  Duke  of  Lancaster.  On  their  return,  the  prince 
and  princess  took  up  their  abode  in  "the  Fair  Maid's"  county  of 
Kent,  where  she  was  greatly  beloved  by  the  people,  among  the 
friends  and  the  pleasant  scenes  of  her  youth.  It  appears  that  they 
resided  some  time  in  the  vicinity  of  Canterbury.  Tradition  has 
consecrated  a  humble  little  well  or  spring  at  Harbledown,  in  the 
rear  of  the  ancient  chapel  and  hospital  of  St.  Nicholas,  as  a  spot 
frequented  by  the  hero  of  Cressy  and  Poitiers,  on  account  of  some 
healing  properties  beheved  to  exist  in  the  water.  It  is  still  called 
the  "well  of  the  Black  Prince,"  and  is  visited  by  those  who  cherish 
mihtary  virtue  and  national  traditions.  But  not  the  sweet  native 
air,  nor  the  pleasant  scenery  of  Kent,  nor  the  water  at  Harble- 
down, could  effect  a  cure  of  the  prince.  He  died  in  London  on 
Trinity  Sunday,  the  8th  day  of  June,  137(3.     Although  the  melan- 


CRESSY,  POITIERS,  AND   AGINCOURT  275 

choly  event  had  long  been  expected,  his  death  seemed  to  toll  the 
knell  of  his  country's  glory.  "The  good  fortune  of  England,"  says 
Walsingham,  a  contemporary  chronicler,  "as  if  it  had  been  inherent 
in  his  person,  flom-ished  in  his  health,  languished  in  his  sickness, 
and  expired  on  his  death ;  for  with  him  died  all  the  hopes  of  En- 
glishmen ;  and  during  his  life  they  had  no  fear  of  invasion  of  the 
enemy,  nor  encounter  in  battle." 

He  received  a  magnificent  funeral  at  Canterbury,  the  whole 
court  and  parliament  being  present,  and  the  body  was  interred  with 
great  pomp  on  the  south  side  of  the  cathedral,  near  to  the  shrine 
of  St.  Thomas  a  Becket.  The  prince's  tomb  has  escaped  better 
than  most  others  the  ravages  of  time  and  fanaticism,  and  that  in- 
sensate barbarity  which  derives  a  pleasure  in  scratching  vulgar 
names,  and  in  mutilating  the  most  precious  objects.  The  spolia- 
tors of  Henry  VIII. 's  time  respected  the  grave  of  the  immortal 
hero,  and  it  escaped  the  fury  of  the  fanatical  Puritans  in  the  days 
of  Cromwell,  and  the  crowbars  and  sledge-hammers  of  Blue  Dick 
and  his  crew,  who  destroyed  nearly  everything  they  could  reach 
within  the  walls  of  the  venerable  cathedral.  Troops  of  Cromwell's 
horse  were  littered  within  those  walls,  but,  though  soured  by  fa- 
naticism, the  men  were  soldiers,  and  had  soldiers'  hearts.  The 
recumbent  figure  of  the  prince,  with  the  hands  joined  in  pra3'er, 
remains  on  the  monument  unmutilated  and  unhurt ;  and  over  it 
are  yet  suspended  the  prince's  gauntlets  and  a  fragment  of  the  coat 
of  mail  he  wore  in  many  battles. 

The  son  of  the  hero,  who  succeeded  to  the  throne  on  the  death 
of  Edward  III.  in  1377,  was  the  handsome,  unwarlike,  and  most 
unhappy  Richard  II. ;  described  by  a  contemporary  writer  as  "a 
clever  fool,"  and  surnamed,  from  his  birthplace,  Richard  of  Bor- 
deaux. Richard  undertook  no  military  expedition,  except  that 
fatal  one  into  Ireland,  which  facilitated  the  usurpation  of  his  cousin 
Bolingbroke,  Henry  of  Lancaster.  But  it  was  long  before  the  peo- 
ple of  England  could  be  weaned  from  their  affection  to  the  son  of 
the  Black  Prince,  and  they  never  ceased  to  love  and  cherish  that 
prince's  ^vidow.  In  the  worst  time  of  Richard's  reign,  when  Wat 
Tyler,  with  tho  insurgent  peasantry  of  Kent,  and  Ball,  the  mad 
friar  and  rhyming  demagogue,  were  marching  on  London  with 


276  GREAT   BATTLES    OF    ALL    NATIONS 

fire  and  sword,  the  mother  of  the  king-,  tr^-ing  to  escape  that  waj', 
was  stopped  by  a  rabble  rout  on  Blackheath.  But  as  soon  as  she 
was  known  every  cap  was  doffed  to  "the  Fair  Maid  of  Kent,"  and 
the  fond  wife  of  the  hero,  who  was  endeared  to  the  people  by  their 
memory  o£  past  kindnesses.  We  are  told  that  among  all  those 
rude,  untutored,  infuriated  people,  there  was  not  a  man  who  would 
do  her  hurt,  or  permit  the  slightest  wrong  to  be  done  to  her  or  to 
an}'  of  her  company. 

During  the  reign  of  Richard's  successor,  the  astute  and  able 
Henry  IV.,  if  we  had  no  war  on  the  Continent,  we  had  foreign 
invasion  and  abundance  of  civil  war  in  England.  This,  apart  from 
any  usurpation  or  change  of  dynasty,  may  be  considered  as  a  neces- 
sit}^  of  the  times.  There  was  always  war  abroad  or  war  at  home. 
But  his  son  and  successor,  the  young,  handsome,  and  heroic  Henry 
v.,  was  scarcely  seated  on  the  throne  ere  the  gauntlet  of  defiance 
was  once  more  thrown  down  to  France. 

There  had  been  no  lack  of  provocation.  The  French  had  kept 
up  a  correspondence  with  Owen  Glendower  in  "Wales,  with  the 
Percies  in  Northumberland,  with  every  chief  that  rose  in  rebellion 
against  Henry  IV.,  and  with  the  Scots  whenever  they  showed  a 
disposition  to  invade  England.  They  plundered  every  English  ship 
they  could  surprise  and  overpower  at  sea ;  they  made  frequent  de- 
scents on  our  coasts ;  they  ravaged  the  Isle  of  Wight ;  and  they 
burned  the  town  of  Pljmiouth.  Notwithstanding  our  naval  supe- 
riority, they,  for  years,  kept  all  our  maritime  counties  in  a  state  of 
alarm.  In  the  year  1406  they  succeeded  in  landing  an  army,  esti- 
mated at  twelve  thousand  men,  in  Milford  Haven,  one  of  those 
spots  where  a  French  armj'-  may  be  landed  in  our  own  daj",  unless 
we  make  adequate  preparations.  Joining  Glendower  and  his  re- 
volted Welshmen,  they  penetrated  almost  to  the  gates  of  Worcester, 
plundering  the  country  and  burning  villages  and  towns. 

Taking  advantage  of  the  distracted  state  of  the  French  mon  • 
archy,  then  ruled  by  the  insane  Charles  VL,  Henry  V.,  in  1415, 
laid  claim  to  the  crown  of  France  as  legitimate  representative  of 
Isabella,  wife  of  Edward  11. ,  on  whose  right  Edward  III.  had 
founded  liis  pretensions. 

Henry  sailed  from  Southampton  with  a  fleet  of  some  one  thou- 


CRESSY,  POITIERS,  AND   AGINCOURT  277 

sand  four  hundred  vessels,  of  from  twenty  to  three  hundred  tons 
burden,  conveying  an  army  of  six  thousand  live  hundred  horse, 
and  about  twenty-four  thousand  foot-soldiers.  Shakespeare  de- 
scribes this  vast  armament  in  his  noble  play  of  "Henry  V.,"  in 
which  he  closely  follows  the  annalist  Holinshed : 

"  .     .     .     .     Oh,  do  but  think 

You  stand  upon  the  rivage,  and  behold 
A  city  on  the  inconstant  billows  dancing, 
For  so  appears  this  fleet  majestical, 
Holding  due  course  to  Harfleur     .     .     .     ,'* 

The  fleet  anchored  off  Harfleur  on  the  13th  of  August.  On  the 
follo\Anng  day  Henry  began  to  land  his  troops  and  stores,  an  opera- 
tion which  lasted  three  whole  days.  A  proclamation  was  issued, 
forbidding,  under  pain  of  death,  all  excesses  against  the  peaceful 
inhabitants;  and  it  is  noted  by  many  contemporary  historians, 
French  as  well  as  English,  that  Henry,  with  honorable  persever- 
ance, enforced  the  uniform  good  treatment  of  the  people  through 
whose  districts  he  afterward  passed;  and  that,  too,  when  suffering 
the  most  dreadful  privations  in  his  own  army. 

On  the  17th  the  king  laid  siege  to  Harfleur,  a  ver}'  strong  fort- 
ress with  a  numerous  garrison,  situated  on  the  left  bank  of  the 
river  Seine.  The  conduct  of  the  siege  was  according  to  the  rules 
laid  down  by  '  ■■  Master  Giles, ' '  the  principal  militarj-  authority  of 
that  period.  The  loss  sustained  by  the  besieging  army  was  very 
great ;  not  so  much  from  the  sword  and  the  awkward  artillery  of 
those  times,  as  from  dysentery,  brought  on  by  the  damp,  unwiiole- 
some  nature  of  the  place.  The  men  perished  by  hundreds,  but  the 
garrison  equally  suffered,  and  there  being  no  prospect  of  relief, 
the  town  was  suiTendered  on  the  22d  of  September,  after  a  siege 
of  thirty-six  daj's.  Henry  then  shipped  his  sick  and  wounded  for 
England,  and  sent  a  chivalrous  challenge  to  the  Dauphin,  offering 
to  decide  the  contest  in  personal  combat,  but  the  heir  to  the  French 
throne,  who  was  fonder  of  fiddling  than  of  fighting,  returned  no 
answer. 

It  is  said  that  a  council  of  war  recommended  to  the  king  that 
he  should  re-embark ;  but  Henry  gave  it  as  his  opinion,  ' '  "We  must 
first  see,  by  God's  help,  a  little  more  of  this  good  land  of  France, 


2/8       GREAT  BATTLES  OF  ALL  NATIONS 

which  is  all  our  own.  Our  mind  is  made  up  to  endure  every  peril 
rather  than  they  should  be  able  to  reproach  us  with  being  afraid  of 
them.  Wo  will  go,  an'  it  please  God,  without  harm  or  danger; 
but  if  they  disturb  our  journey,  wh}-,  then,  ^ve  must  fight  them, 
and  victory  and  glory  will  be  ours." 

"With  a  force  not  exceeding  at  the  utmost  nine  thousand  men, 
Henry,  on  the  6th  of  October,  began  his  march  to  Calais.  At  this 
time  a  great  army,  under  the  king  and  dauphin,  lay  at  Rouen,  and 
another,  under  the  Constable  of  France,  took  up  a  position  in  front 
of  the  English,  in  Picardy.  In  his  passage  through  Normandy 
Henry  met  with  no  great  resistance;  but  detachments  more  nu- 
merous than  his  whole  force  watched  his  movements,  and  cut  off 
stragglers.  The  country  was  laid  waste  before  his  approach,  so 
that  his  troops  were  in  a  deplorable  state  from  sickness  and  want 
of  food,  the  army  having  taken  only  eight  days'  supplies.  But  the 
king  gave  strict  orders,  after  leaving  Harfleur,  that  "in  our  marches 
through  the  country  there  be  nothing  compelled  from  the  villagers, 
nothing  taken  but  paid  for."  The  garrison  of  Eu  made  a  sor- 
tie, and  fell  upon  Henry's  rear,  but  the  leader  of  the  French  was 
killed,  and  the  rest  fled  back  to  the  cover  of  their  ramparts.  On 
the  12th  he  reached  the  memorable  ford  of  Blanche  Taque,  where 
he  hoped  to  pass  hke  Edward  III. ;  but  the  French  resolved  to 
defend  the  line  of  the  Somme.  Taught  by  experience,  they  had 
fortified  both  banks,  had  driven  palisades  across  the  ford,  and 
placed  strong  bodies  of  archers  behind  them.  Henr}*  retreated  to 
Airennes,  the  little  town  where  his  great-grandfather  had  slept. 
On  the  follo"v^^g  morning  he  continued  his  march  along  the  left 
bank.  The  Constable  of  France  had  fixed  his  headquarters  at 
Abbeville.  On  the  opposite  side  of  the  river,  every  bridge  was 
broken  do^vn,  every  ford  was  fortified,  and  columns  of  horse  and 
foot  marched  in  parallel  lines  along  the  right  bank.  "I  who  -write," 
says  an  anonymous  writer,  whom  Sir  H.  Nicolas  stjTes  "Chronicler 
A.,"  "and  many  others,  looked  bitterly  up  to  heaven,  and  implored 
the  divine  mercy  and  the  protection  of  the  Virgin,  and  of  England's 
saint,  St.  George,  to  save  us  from  the  imminent  peril  by  which  wo 
were  surrounded,  and  enable  us  to  reach  Calais  in  safety."  On 
the  14th  Henry  made  an  attempt  to  pass  at  Pont  St.  Remy,  and 


CRESSY,  POITIERS,  ANC)    AGINCOURT  279 

was  repulsed,  as  Edward  had  been  at  the  same  place.  On  the 
following  and  succeeding  days  he  tried  to  force  a  passage  at  the 
fords,  but  met  with  no  better  success. 

His  troops  were  suffering  every  possible  discomfort,  and  were 
disheartened  by  their  repeated  disappointments;  but  on  the  morn- 
ing of  the  19th  he  was  so  fortunate  as  to  find  a  ford,  and  making 
a  dash,  the  vanguard  established  themselves  on  the  right  bank, 
and  soon  the  whole  army  crossed  safely  over.  Having  lost  this 
line  of  defense,  the  Constable  fell  back  from  the  Somme,  and 
marched  along  the  Calais  road  as  far  as  St.  Pol,  in  Artois.  Henry 
followed  by  the  same  road,  but  while  his  small  force  was  ever}^ 
hour  further  reduced  by  sickness,  that  of  the  Constable  was  contin- 
ually strengthened,  and  in  a  few  days  the  whole  of  the  French 
troops  were  concentrated  under  his  command. 

On  the  20th  of  October  three  heralds  arrived  from  the  Consta- 
ble and  the  dukes  of  Orleans  and  Bourbon  to  acquaint  the  king 
of  their  resolution  to  give  him  battle  before  he  reached  Calais.  To 
this  Henry  replied  that  he  intended  marching  on  Calais,  and  if  the 
French  attempted  to  stop  him,  it  would  be  at  their  peril. 

"The  sum  of  all  oui*  answer  is  but  this: 
We  would  not  seek  a  battle  as  we  are ; 
Nor  as  we  are,  we  say,  we  will  not  shun  it." 

the  king  of  England  was  as  good  as  his  word.  From  St.  Pol 
the  Constable  fell  back  to  the  village  of  Agincourt,  determining  to 
make  his  stand  there. 

On  the  24th,  Henry  crossed  the  deep  and  rapid  river  of 
Ternois,  and  soon  after  came  in  sight  of  the  enemy.  Expecting 
an  attack,  he  formed  in  order  of  battle,  but  the  columns  he 
saw  withdrew  to  Agincourt,  and  toward  evening  he  marched 
on  to  Maisoncelles,  a  large  village  which  was  only  a  few  bow- 
shots from  the  enemy's  outposts.  Here  the  English  rested  and 
refreshed  themselves. 

As  soon  as  the  moon  rose,  officers  were  sent  out  to  survey  the 
positions,  while  the  men,  though  fatigued  and  suffering  from  cold 
and  hunger,  kept  up  a  cheerful  spirit,  and  maintained  what  the 
eccentric  Fluellin  calls  "the  disciplines  of  the  wars."      But  the 


28o  GREAT    BATTLES    OF   ALL    NATIONS 

position  was  a  critical  one,  and  the  more  thoughtful  confessed  their 
sins,  took  the  sacrament,  and  made  their  wills.     As  Shakespeare 

says: 

The  English  soldiers 

"by  their  watchful  fires 
Sit  patientlj'  and  inl}^  ruminate 
The  morning's  danger :  and  their  gestures  sad, 
Investing  lank-lean  cheeks  and  war-worn  coats, 
Presenteth  them  unto  the  gazing  moon 
So  many  horrid  ghosts!" 

On  the  side  of  the  French  there  was  no  want  of  confidence,  but 
an  evident  absence  of  order  and  discipline.  The  night  was  cold 
and  rainy,  and  the  soldiers  lighted  great  fires  all  along  their  line 
and  caroused  freeh',  calculating  the  proper  ransoms  for  the  king 
and  the  great  barons  of  England,  whom  they  made  sure  of  taking 
on  the  morrow.  There  was  continual  movement  and  music  all 
night.  Among  the  leaders  of  the  army  were  some  old  officers  not 
quite  so  confident  of  success.  The  Duke  of  Berri,  who  had  fought 
at  the  battle  of  Poitiers  sixty  years  before,  remembered  that  on 
that  occasion  the  French  had  felt  sure  of  victoiy,  and  yet  his  father. 
King  John,  had  been  taken  prisoner,  and  the  armj-  destroyed. 
With  these  discouraging  recollections,  the  old  duke  had  opposed 
the  plan  of  giAnng  battle  altogether,  and  had  prevented  the  project 
of  putting  Charles  in  person  at  the  head  of  his  forces.  "It  is  bet- 
ter," said  he,  "to  lose  the  battle  than  to  lose  both  king  and  the 
battle." 

At  early  dawn  King  Henrj^  accompanied  by  his  leading  officers 

— the  dukes  of  Gloucester  and  Bedford,  his  brothers,  the  Duke  of 

Exeter,  his  uncle,  the  Duke  of  York,  his  cousin,  and  the  earls  of 

Suffolk,   Westmoreland,   and   Salisbury — heard   matins  and   mass 

with   his  men,  and   then   led   them  to  their  positions   in   person. 

His  bearing  was   calm   and   confident,  but  without   an}'  insolent 

as.surance. 

"A  largess,  universal  like  the  sun, 
His  liberal  eye  doth  give  to  every  one." 

He  formed  them,  as  usual,  into  three  divisions,  in  close  order, 
Avith  the  archers  placed  in  advance  of  the  men-at-arms,  in  form  of 
a  wedge.     In  addition  to  his  bow  and  arrows,  his  bill-hook,  hatchet, 


CRESSY,  POITIHRS,  AND    AGINCOURT  281 

or  hammer,  every  archer  carried  a  long  stake  sharpened  at  both 
ends,  and  tipped  with  iron,  for  fixing  obhquely  before  him  in  the 
ground,  so  as  to  serve  as  a  firm  pike  against  the  charge  of  the 
enemy's  cavalry.  These  stakes  formed  together  an  excellent  ram- 
part, partaking  of  the  nature  of  chevaux-de-frise,  and  easil}*  remov- 
able. The  baggage  and  horses — for  this  battle,  like  that  of  Poitiers 
and  Cressy,  was  to  be  fought  chiefly  on  foot — were  placed  in  the 
rear,  near  the  village  of  Maisoncelles,  under  the  guard  of  some 
men-at-arms  and  a  small  body  of  archers. 

When  these  dispositions  were  made,  Henry  rode  along  the  lines 
of  each  division.  He  wore  a  helmet  of  polished  steel,  surmounted 
with  a  crown  of  gold  set  with  sparkling  gems,  and  the  Arms  of 
England  and  of  France  were  embroidered  on  his  surcoat;  but 
brighter  and  more  reassuring  than  gold  and  gems  were  the  lively 
blue  eyes  of  the  hero,  whose  countenance,  like  that  of  his  great 
ancestor  at  Cressy,  was  serenely  cheerful. 

"For  forth  he  goes,  and  visits  all  his  host, 
Bids  them  good  morrow,  Avith  a  modest  smile. 
And  calls  them — brothers,  friends  and  countrjTnen. 
Upon  his  royal  face  there  is  no  note 
How  dread  an  army  hath  enrounded  him." 

Henry  recalled  to  their  memories  the  glorious  victories  gained 
by  their  ancestors  with  an  equal  disparity  of  numbers.  He  told 
them  that  he  had  made  up  his  own  mind  to  conquer  or  die,  and 
that  England  should  never  have  to  pay  a  ransom  for  him. 

Shakespeare,  in  his  majestic  verse,  closely  follows  the  version 
of  Holinshed.     Lord  Westmoreland  expressed  a  wish  for 

"But  one  ten  thousand  of  those  men  in  England 
That  do  no  work  to-day." 

But  the  king  cheerfuU}'  replied  that  he  would  have  "not  one 
man  more, ' '  for,  he  adds : 

"If  it  be  a  sin  to  covert  honor, 
I  am  the  most  offending  soul  ahve. " 

The  disparity  of  numbers  was,  indeed,  appalling,  the  French 
being,  at  the  most  moderate  calculation,  as  six  to  one.     A  con 


282  GREAT   BATTLES    OF   ALL   NATIONS 

temporary^  estimates  the  French  at  one  hundred  thousand,  which 
would  be  more  than  ten  to  one,  calculating  that  Henry  marched 
from.  Harileur  with  nine  thousand  men,  and  without  counting  his 
losses  on  the  march. 

But  the  French  had  learned  little  from  experience ;  their  chiefs 
had  crowded  their  immense  hosts  in  fields  between  two  roads,  where 
there  was  not  room  for  them  to  deploy  or  maneuver  mth  any  facil- 
ity. From  the  Seine  to  the  Somme  there  was  scarcely  a  position 
more  unfavorable,  and  the  rain,  which  had  fallen  in  torrents,  ren- 
dered the  clayey  soil  almost  impassable  to  horses  bearing  the  weight 
of  men  in  heavy  armor,  while  to  the  lightly  accoutered  English  foot 
no  such  obstacle  presented  itself. 

The  French  waited  to  be  attacked,  but  Henry,  calculating  on 
the  confusion  sure  to  arise  at  the  first  movement  of  so  large  a  force 
in  such  close  and  difficult  ground,  remained  entirely  on  the  defen- 
sive for  some  hours.  "The  Constable,"  says  M.  de  Barante,  who 
has  described  the  battle  with  rare  impartialit}',  "was,  by  right  of 
his  office,  the  commander-in-chief  of  the  French  army ;  but  there 
were  with  him  so  many  princes,  who  had  all  wills  of  their  own, 
that  it  was  not  easy  for  him  to  obtain  obedience."  He  would  fain 
have  waited  the  arrival  of  re-enforcements,  who  were  on  the  march, 
and  even  sent  emissaries  to  negotiate  with  Henry,  to  whom  he 
offered  a  free  passage,  if  he  would,  on  his  part,  restore  Harfleur, 
together  with  all  the  prisoners  he  had  made,  and  resign  his  pre- 
tensions to  the  crown  of  France. 

But  the  English  king  rejected  these  conditions,  and  at  length 
put  in  motion  two  columns  of  archers,  the  one  to  lie  in  ambush  on 
the  left  flank  of  the  French,  the  other  to  their  rear,  where,  when 
the  battle  began,  they  were  to  set  fire  to  some  buildings,  and  so 
create  an  alarm. 

These  maneuvers  were  executed,  and  the  two  detachments  hav- 
ing taken  up  their  positions,  Henry,  about  noon,  gave  the  order, 
"Banners,  advance." 

The  distance  between  the  two  armies  was  less  than  a  quarter 
of  a  mile.  The  EngHsh  moved  on  in  gallant  array,  until  the  fore- 
most came  within  bowshot  of  the  French ;  then  the  archers,  under 
their  veteran  leader,  Sir  Thomas  Erpingham,  planted  their  stakes 


CRESSY.  POITIERS,  AND    AGINCOURT  283 

in  the  ground  before  them,  and  set  up  a  shout.  Their  loud  huzzas 
were  echoed  by  the  men  that  lay  concealed  on  the  left  flank  of  the 
French,  who  at  once  found  themselves  assailed  by  showers  of 
arrows,  both  in  front  and  flank.  Drayton  says,  in  his  "Ballad 
of  Agincourt,"  our  archers  shot — 

"With  Spanish  yew  so  strong, 
Arrows  a  cloth-yard  long." 

It  was  a  repetition  of  Cressy  and  Poitiers. 

"None  from  his  fellow  starts, 
But  playing  manly  parts. 
And  like  true  English  hearts. 
Strike  close  together, ' ' 

The  French  had  few  or  no  bowmen.  The  Duke  of  Brabant 
thought  that  he  could  break  the  English  archers  with  his  lances, 
and  charged  ^^^th  one  thousand  two  hundred  horse,  the  best  chiv- 
alry of  France,  shouting,  "Montjoie  St.  Denis!"  But  the  ground 
was  soft  and  slippery ;  the  flight  of  arrows  that  met  them  full  in 
the  face  Avas  terrific,  and  not  above  seven  score  followed  their  chief 
up  to  the  English  front,  where  the  archers  had  thrown  aside  theu* 
leathern  jackets,  that  they  might  more  freely  ply  their  weapons, 
and  this  they  did  -with  deadly  effect,  so  that  only  three  horsemen 
penetrated  beyond  the  stakes,  and  they  were  instantly  slain. 

Meanwhile,  the  Frei  3h  horses,  mad  with  pain  and  fear,  caused 
the  wildest  uproar  and  confusion  in  their  lines.  All  order  was 
already  lost  there ;  the  columns  got  mixed ;  the  words  of  command 
were  disregarded ;  and  while  the  timid  stole  to  the  rear,  the  brave 
rushed  to  the  van,  making  "confusion  worse  confounded"  in  that 
narrow  space.  Meanwhile,  the  English,  removing  their  stakes, 
came  on  with  shouts.  The  French  made  a  slight  retrograde 
movement,  and  then  got  into  some  newly-plowed  cornfields, 
where  their  horses  sank  and  stuck  fast,  or  rolled  over  with  their 
riders. 

The  English  archers,  sHnging  their  bows  behind  them,  rushed 
Avith  their  bill-hooks  and  hatchets  into  the  midst  of  the  steel-clad 
knights,  they  themselves  being  almost  without  clothing,  and  many 
of  them  both  barefooted  and  bareheaded.  The  Constable  of  France 
and   man}'-  of   the  most  illustrious  of   the   knights  were  presently 


284  GREAT    BATTLES    OF    ALL    NATlOiNS 

killed  by  these  despised  plebeians,   who,   without   any  assistance 
from  the  chivalry  of  England,  dispersed  the  whole  body. 

Then  the  second  French  division  opened  to  receive  the  broken 
_eninants  of  the  first — a  maneuver  attended  with  fresh  disorder. 
At  this  moment,  the  Duke  Anthony  of  Brabant,  freshly  arrived 
on  the  field,  headed  a  fresh  charge  of  horse,  but  was  instantly  slain 
by  the  English  bowmen.  The  second  division  of  the  French,  how- 
ever, closed  up,  and  kept  its  ground.  Henry  now  brought  up  his 
men-at-arms,  and  led  them  in  person  to  the  charge.  His  majesty 
freely  exposed  his  person,  and  when  his  brother,  the  Duke  of  Clar- 
ence, was  wounded  and  thrown  to  the  ground,  went  to  his  assist- 
ance and  beat  off  the  assailants.  Soon  after,  he  was  charged  by 
a  band  of  eighteen  knights,  bearing  the  banner  of  the  lord  of 
Croy,  who  had  bound  themselves  by  an  oath  to  take  or  kill  the 
king  of  England.  One  of  these  knights  struck  the  king  with  his 
mace,  or  battle-ax,  and  brought  him  to  his  knees,  but  his  body- 
guard closed  round  him,  and  killed  every  one  of  the  eighteen 
knights.  The  Duke  of  Alencon  then  charged  up,  and,  cutting  his 
way  to  the  royal  standard  of  England,  with  a  stroke  of  his  battle-ax 
beat  the  Duke  of  York  to  the  ground.  Henry  bestrode  the  bod}' 
of  his  cousin,  when  Alencon  struck  him  on  the  helmet,  breaking 
off  part  of  the  crown.  But  it  was  his  last  effort,  for  the  English 
men-at-arms  closed  upon  him,  when,  seeing  his  danger,  he  called 
to  the  king,  "I  surrender  to  you;  I  am  the  Duke  of  Alencon." 
Henry  held  out  his  hand,  but  it  w-as  too  late,  and  the  "flower  of 
France,"  as  Draj-ton  calls  him,  fell  pierced  with  a  dozen  wounds. 

The  fall  of  Alencon  caused  dismay  throughout  the  French  ranks, 
and  the  third  division,  which  had  not  been  engaged,  and  was  in 
itself  more  than  double  the  number  of  the  whole  Enghsh  force, 
retired  precipitately.  Great  numbers  of  prisoners  fell  into  the 
hands  of  the  English,  but  owing  to  a  false  alarm  of  the  arrival  of 
re-enforcements,  Henrj^  ordered  a  massacre  of  them,  which,  how- 
ever, was  stopped  as  soon  as  the  mistake  was  discovered.  Attended 
by  his  principal  barons,  Henry  rode  over  the  field,  and  sent  out  the 
heralds,  as  usual,  to  examine  the  coats  of  arms  of  the  knights  and 
]^rinces  that  had  fallen,  and  learning  from  Montjoie,  the  French 
king-at-arms,  that  the  castle  near  at  hand  was  called  Azincourt, 


CRESSY,  POITIERS.  AND   AGINCOURT  285 

gave  that  name  tr  che  battlefield,  which  has  become  corrupted  to 

Agincourt. 

'  •Then  call  we  this  the  field  of  Agincourt, 
Fought  on  the  day  of  Crispin  Crispianus. ' ' 

Th  loss  on  the  side  of  the  French  was  enormous;  never  had 
so  many  and  such  noble  men  fallen  in  one  battle.  Almost  the 
whole  chivalry  of  France  and  many  princes  of  the  blood  royal  had 
perished.  Among  the  latter  were  the  dukes  of  Brabant,  Bar,  and 
Alencon,  the  Count  of  Nevers,  and  the  Constable  of  France,  Charles 
de  la  Bret.  Among  the  great  lords  were  Jaques  Chatillon,  admiral 
of  France,  Count  Rambures,  master  of  the  crossbows,  Sir  Guis- 
chard  Dauphin,  master  of  France,  Counts  Grandpre,  Fauconberg, 
Foix,  Beaumont,  Lestrale  and  Vaudemont,  and  many  others.  As 
Henry  said:  "Here  was  a  royal  fellowship  of  death."  There  per- 
ished on  the  field  ten  thousand  men,  besides  eight  thousand  four 
hundred  knights  and  esquires,  including  one  hundred  and  twent}'- 
eight  nobles,  each  having  a  banner  of  his  own.  Among  the  one 
thousand  five  hundred  French  prisoners  of  high  degree,  lords, 
knights,  and  esquires,  was  the  Duke  of  Orleans,  who  was  dragged 
out  wounded  from  a  heap  of  slain,  and  whom  the  king  went  to 
console;  the  Duke  of  Bourbon,  Marshal  Bouciqualt,  the  counts 
of  Eu  and  Veiidome,  and  the  lords  of  Harcourt  and  Craon.  The 
loss  of  the  English  is  differently  estimated.  The  highest  account 
places  it  at  only  one  thousand  six  hundred  men,  among  whom  were 
the  Earl  of  Suffolk,  the  Duke  of  York,  the  king's  cousin,  and  Sir 
Richard  Ketley. 

Shakespeare  says  only  twenty-five  were  slain  besides  these  three 
nobles,  and  puts  into  the  mouth  of  the  king  the  pious  ejaculation: 

"Oh  God,  thy  arm  was  here, 
And  not  to  us,  but  to  thy  arm  alone 
Ascribe  we  all." 

The  English  heroes  returned  to  Calais,  staggering  under  the  weight 
of  their  booty.     As  Drayton  says: 

"AVagons  and  carts  were  laden  till  thej'  crackt, 
"With  arms  and  tents  there  taken  on  the  field; 
Nor  need  they  convoy,  fearing  to  be  sackt, 
For  all  the  country'-  to  King  Henry  yields." 

["Battles  of  the  British  Army." 


CHAPTER   XIII 
THE   BATTLE   OF  ORLEANS 

THE  EXPULSION  OF  THE  ENGLISH  FROM  FRANCE  AND  THE 
VICTORY  OF  JOAN  OF  ARC 

A.  D.    1429 

AFTER  Agincourt  there  remained  little  but  the  capture  of 
Orleans  to  turn  France  into  a  second  Ireland.  Orleans 
was  regarded  as  the  last  stronghold  of  the  French  national 
party.  If  the  English  could  once  obtain  possession  of  it,  their  vic- 
torious progress  through  the  residue  of  the  kingdom  seemed  free 
from  any  serious  obstacle.  Accordingly,  the  Earl  of  Salisbury, 
one  of  the  bravest  and  most  experienced  of  the  English  generals, 
who  had  been  trained  under  Henry  V.,  marched  to  the  attack  of 
the  all-important  city;  and,  after  reducing  several  places  of  infe- 
rior consequence  in  the  neighborhood,  appeared  with  his  army 
before  its  walls  on  the  3  2th  of  October,  1428. 

The  city  of  Orleans  itself  was  on  the  north  side  of  the  L:)ire, 
but  its  suburbs  extended  far  on  the  southern  side,  and  a  strong 
bridge  connected  them  with  the  town.  A  fortification,  which  in 
modern  military  phrase  would  be  termed  a  tete-du-pont,  defended 
the  bridge  head  on  the  southern  side,  and  two  towers,  called  the 
Tourelles,  were  built  on  the  bridge  itself,  at  a  little  distance  from 
the  tete-du-pont.  Indeed,  the  solid  masonry  of  the  bridge  termi- 
nated at  the  ToureUes;  and  the  communication  thence  with  the 
tete-du-pont  and  the  southern  shore  was  by  means  of  a  draw- 
bridge. The  Tourelles  and  the  tete-du-pont  formed  together  a 
strongly  fortified  post,  capable  of  containing  a  garrison  of  consid- 
erable strength ;  and  so  long  as  this  was  in  possession  of  the  Or- 
leannais,  they  could  communicate  freely  with  the  southern  prov- 
(286) 


THE   BATTLE    OF   ORLEANS  287 

inces,  the  inhabitants  of  which,  hke  the  Orleannais  themselves, 
supported  the  cause  of  their  dauphin  against  the  foreigners.  Lord 
Salisbury  rightly  judged  the  capture  of  the  Tourelles  to  be  the  most 
material  step  toward  the  reduction  of  the  city  itself.  Accordingly, 
he  directed  his  principal  operations  against  this  post,  and  after  some 
severe  repulses,  he  carried  the  Tom-elles  by  storm  on  the  23d  of 
October.  The  French,  however^  broke  down  the  arches  of  the 
bridge  that  were  nearest  to  the  north  bank,  and  thus  rendered  a 
direct  assault  from  the  Tourelles  upon  the  city  impossible.  But 
the  possession  of  this  post  enabled  the  English  to  distress  the  town 
greatly  by  a  battery  of  cannon  which  they  planted  there,  and  which 
commanded  some  of  the  principal  streets. 

It  has  been  observed  by  Hume  that  this  is  the  first  siege  in 
which  any  important  use  appears  to  have  been  made  of  artillery. 
And  even  at  Orleans  both  besiegers  and  besieged  seem  to  have 
employed  their  cannons  merely  as  instruments  of  destruction 
against  their  enemy's  men,  and  not  to  have  trusted  to  them  as 
engines  of  demohtion  against  their  enemy's  walls  and  works.  The 
eflScacy  of  cannon  in  breaching  solid  masonry  was  taught  Europe 
by  the  Turks  a  few  years  afterward,  at  the  memorable  siege  of 
Constantinople.  In  our  French  wars,  as  in  the  wars  of  the  classic 
nations,  famine  was  looked  on  as  the  surest  weapon  to  compel  the 
submission  of  a  well- walled  town ;  and  the  great  object  of  the  be- 
siegers was  to  effect  a  complete  circumvallation.  The  great  ambit 
of  the  walls  of  Orleans,  and  the  facilities  which  the  river  gave  for 
obtaining  succors  and  supplies,  rendered  the  capture  of  the  town 
by  this  process  a  matter  of  great  difficulty.  Nevertheless,  Lord 
Salisbury,  and  Lord  Suffolk,  who  succeeded  him  in  command  of 
the  English  after  his  death  by  a  cannon  ball,  carried  on  the  neces- 
sary works  with  great  skill  and  resolution.  Six  strongly  fortified 
posts,  called  bastiles,  were  formed  at  certain  intervals  round  the 
town,  and  the  purpose  of  the  English  engineers  was  to  draw  strong 
lines  between  them.  During  the  winter,  Httle  progress  was  made 
with  the  intrenchments,  but  when  the  spring  of  1429  came,  the 
English  resumed  their  work  with  activity;  the  eommimications 
between  the  city  and  the  country  became  more  difficult,  and  the 
approach  of  want  began  already  to  be  felt  in  Orleans. 


288  GREAT   BATTLES    OF   ALL    NATIONS 

The  besieging  force  also  fared  hardly  for  stores  and  provisions, 
until  reUeved  by  the  effects  of  a  brilliant  victory  which  Sir  John 
Fastolfe,  one  of  the  best  English  generals,  gained  at  Rouvrai,  near 
Orleans,  a  few  days  after  Ash  Wednesday,  1429.  With  only  six- 
teen hundred  fighting  men,  Sir  John  completely  defeated  an  army 
of  French  and  Scots,  four  thousand  strong,  which  had  been  col- 
lected for  the  purpose  of  aiding  the  Orleannais  and  harassing  the 
besiegers.  After  this  encounter,  which  seemed  decisively  to  con- 
firm the  superiority  of  the  English  in  battle  over  their  adversaries, 
Fastolfe  escorted  large  supplies  of  stores  and  food  to  Suffolk's 
camp,  and  the  spirits  of  the  English  rose  to  the  highest  pitch  at 
the  prospect  of  the  speed}'  capture  of  the  city  before  them,  and  the 
consequent  subjection  of  all  France  beneath  their  arms. 

The  Orleannais  now,  in  their  distress,  offered  to  surrender  the 
city  into  the  hands  of  the  Duke  of  Burgundy,  who,  though  the  ally 
of  the  English,  was  yet  one  of  their  native  princes.  The  Regent 
Bedford  refused  these  terms,  and  the  speedy  submission  of  the  city 
to  the  English  seemed  inevitable.  The  Dauphin  Charles,  who  was 
now  at  Chinon  with  his  remnant  of  a  court,  despaired  of  continu- 
ing any  longer  the  struggle  for  his  crown,  and  was  only  prevented 
from  abandoning  the  country  by  the  more  masculine  spirits  of  his 
mistress  and  his  queen.  Yet  neither  they,  nor  the  boldest  of 
Charles's  captains,  could  have  shown  him  where  to  find  resources 
for  prolonging  war;  and  least  of  all  could  any  human  skill  have 
predicted  the  quarter  whence  rescue  was  to  come  to  Orleans  and 
to  France. 

In  the  village  of  Domremy,  on  the  borders  of  Lorraine,  there 
was  a  poor  peasant  of  the  name  of  Jacques  d'Arc,  respected  in  his 
station  of  life,  and  who  had  reared  a  family  in  virtuous  habits  and 
in  the  practice  of  the  strictest  devotion.  His  eldest  daughter  was 
named  by  her  parents  Jannette,  but  she  was  called  Jeanne  by  the 
French,  which  was  Latinized  into  Johanna,  and  Anglicized  into 
Joan: 

At  the  time  when  Joan  first  attracted  attention,  she  was  about 
eighteen  years  of  age.  She  was  naturally  of  a  susceptible  disposi- 
tion, which  diligent  attention  to  the  legends  of  saints  and  tales  of 
fairies,  aided  by  the  dreamy  loneliness  of  her  life  while  tending  her 


THE    BATTLE    OF    ORLEANS  289 

father's  flocks,  had  made  peculiarly  prone  to  enthusiastic  fervor. 
At  the  same  time,  she  t\  as  eminent  for  piety  and  purity  of  soul, 
and  for  her  compassionate  gentleness  to  the  sick  and  the  distressed. 

The  district  where  she  dwelt  had  escaped  comparatively  free 
from  the  ravages  of  war,  but  th  approach  of  roving  bands  of  Bur- 
gundian  or  English  troops  frequentlj"  spread  terror  through  Dom- 
remy.  Once  the  village  had  been  plundered  by  some  of  these 
marauders,  and  Joan  and  her  family  had  been  driven  from  their 
home  and  forced  to  seek  refuge  for  a  time  at  Neufchateau,  The 
peasantry  in  Domremy  were  principally  attached  to  the  house  of 
Orleans  and  the  Dauphin,  and  all  the  miseries  which  France  en- 
dured were  there  imputed  to  the  Burgundian  faction  and  their 
allies,  the  English,  who  were  seeking  to  enslave  unhappy  France. 

Thus  from  infancy  to  girlhood,  Joan  had  heard  continually  of 
the  woes  of  the  war,  and  had  herself  witnessed  some  of  the  ^vretch- 
edness  that  it  caused.  A  feeling  of  intense  patriotism  grew  in  her 
with  her  growth.  The  deliverance  of  France  from  the  Enghsh 
was  the  subject  of  her  reveries  by  day  and  her  dreams  by  night. 
Blended  with  these  aspirations  were  recollections  of  the  miraculous 
interpositions  of  Heaven  in  favor  of  the  oppressed,  which  she  had 
learned  from  the  legends  of  her  Church.  Her  faith  was  undoubi- 
ing;  her  prayers  were  fervent.  "She  feared  no  danger,  for  she 
felt  no  sin,"  and  at  length  she  believed  herself  to  have  received 
the  supernatural  inspiration  which  she  sought. 

According  to  her  own  narrative,  dehvered  by  her  to  her  merci- 
less inquisitors  in  the  time  of  her  captivity  and  approaching  death, 
she  was  about  thirteen  years  old  when  her  revelations  commenced. 
Her  own  words  describe  them  best.  "At  the  age  of  thirteen,  a 
voice  from  God  came  to  her  to  help  her  in  ruling  herself,  and  that 
voice  came  to  her  about  the  hour  of  noon,  in  summer  time,  while 
she  was  in  her  father's  garden.  And  she  had  fasted  the  day  be- 
fore. And  she  heard  the  voice  on  her  right,  in  the  direction  of  the 
church;  and  when  she  heard  the  voice,  she  saw  also  a  bright  light.'" 
Afterward  St.  Michael,  and  St.  Margaret,  and  St.  Catharine  ap- 
peared to  her.  They  were  always  in  a  halo  of  glory;  she  could  see 
that  their  heads  were  crowned  %\nth  jewels;  and  she  heard  their 
vcices,  which  were  sweet  and  mild.  She  did  not  distinguish  their 
J— Vol.  I. 


290  GREAT   BATTLES    OF   ALL    NATIONS 

arms  or  limbs.  She  heard  them  more  frequently  than  she  saw 
them;  and  the  usual  time  when  she  heard  them  was  when  the 
church  bells  were  sounding  for  prayer.  And  if  she  was  in  the 
woods  when  she  heard  them,  she  could  plainly  distinguish  their 
voices  drawing  near  to  her.  When  she  thought  that  she  discerned 
the  Heavenly  Voices,  she  knelt  down,  and  bowed  herself  to  the 
ground.  Their  presence  gladdened  her  even  to  tears;  and  after 
they  departed,  she  wept  because  they  had  not  taken  her  with  them 
back  to  Paradise.  They  always  spoke  soothingly  to  her.  They 
told  her  that  France  would  be  saved,  and  that  she  was  to  save  it. 
Such  were  the  visions  and  the  voices  that  moved  the  spirit  of  the 
girl  of  thirteen ;  and  as  she  grew  older,  they  became  more  frequent 
and  more  clear.  At  last  the  tidmgs  of  the  siege  of  Orleans  reached 
Domremy.  Joan  heard  her  parents  and  neighbors  talk  of  the  suf- 
ferings of  its  population,  of  the  ruin  which  its  capture  would  bring 
on  their  lawful  sovereign,  and  of  the  distress  of  the  dauphin  and 
his  court.  Joan's  heart  was  sorely  troubled  at  the  thought  of  the 
fate  of  Orleans ;  and  her  Voices  now  ordered  her  to  leave  her  home ; 
and  warned  her  that  she  was  the  instrument  chosen  by  Heaven  for 
driving  away  the  English  from  that  city,  and  for  taking  the  dau- 
phin to  be  anointed  king  at  Rheims.  At  length  she  informed  her 
parents  of  her  divine  mission,  and  told  them  that  she  must  go  to 
the  Sire  de  Baudricourt,  who  commanded  at  Vaucouleurs,  and  who 
was  the  appointed  person  to  bring  her  into  the  presence  of  the  king, 
whom  she  was  to  save.  Neither  the  anger  nor  the  grief  of  her 
parents,  who  said  that  they  would  rather  see  her  drowned  than 
exposed  to  the  contamination  of  the  camp,  could  move  her  from 
her  purpose.  One  of  her  uncles  consented  to  take  her  to  Vaucou- 
leurs, where  De  Baudricourt  at  first  thought  her  mad  and  derided 
her ;  but  by  degrees  was  led  to  believe,  if  not  in  her  inspiration, 
at  least  in  her  enthusiasm,  and  in  its  possible  utility  to  the  dau- 
phin's cause. 

The  inhabitants  of  Vaucouleurs  were  completely  won  over  to 
her  side  by  the  piety  and  devoutness  which  she  displayed,  and  by 
her  firm  assurance  in  the  truth  of  her  mission.  She  told  them  that 
it  was  God's  will  that  she  should  go  to  the  king,  and  that  no  one 
but  her  could  save  the  kingdom  of  France.     She  said  that  she  her- 


THE  BATTLE  OF  ORLEANS  291 

self  would  rather  remain  with  her  poor  mother,  and  spin ;  but  the 
Lord  had  ordered  her  forth.  The  fame  of  "The  Maid,"  as  she  was 
termed,  the  renown  of  her  holiness,  and  of  her  mission,  spread  far 
and  wide.  Baudricourt  sent  her  -with  an  escort,  to  Chinon,  where 
the  Dauphin  Charles  was  dallying  away  his  time.  Her  Voices  had 
bidden  her  assume  the  arms  and  the  apparel  of  a  knight;  and  the 
wealthiest  inhabitants  of  Vaucouleiu-s  had  vied  with  each  other  in 
equipping  her  with  war-horse,  armor  and  sword.  On  reaching 
Chinon,  she  was,  after  some  delay,  admitted  into  the  presence  of 
the  dauphin.  Charles  designedly  dressed  himself  far  less  richly 
than  many  of  his  courtiers  were  appareled,  and  mingled  with  them, 
when  Joan  was  introduced,  in  order  to  see  if  the  Holy  Maid  would 
address  her  exhortations  to  the  wrong  person.  But  she  instantly 
singled  him  out,  and  kneeling  before  him,  said :  ' '  Most  noble  dau- 
phin, the  King  of  Heaven  announces  to  you  by  me  that  you  shall 
be  anointed  and  crowned  king  in  the  city  of  Rheims,  and  that  you 
shall  be  His  vicegerent  in  France."  His  features  may  probably 
have  been  seen  by  her  previously  in  portraits,  or  have  been  de- 
scribed to  her  by  others;  but  she  herself  believed  that  her  Voices 
inspired  her  when  she  addressed  the  king;  and  the  report  soon 
spread  abroad  that  the  Holy  Maid  had  found  the  king  by  a  miracle ; 
and  this,  with  many  other  similar  rumors,  augmented  the  renown 
and  influence  that  she  now  rapidly  acquired. 

The  state  of  public  feeling  in  France  was  now  favorable  to  an 
enthusiastic  belief  in  a  divine  interposition  in  favor  of  the  part}'' 
that  had  hitherto  been  unsuccessful  and  oppressed.  The  humilia- 
tions which  had  befallen  the  French  royal  family  and  nobility  were 
looked  on  as  the  just  judgments  of  God  upon  them  for  their  vice 
and  impiety.  The  misfortunes  that  had  come  upon  France  as  a 
nation  were  believed  to  have  been  drawn  down  by  national  sins. 
The  English,  who  had  been  the  instruments  of  Heaven's  wrath 
against  France,  seemed  now,  by  their  pride  and  cruelty,  to  be  fit- 
ting objects  of  it  themselves.  France  in  that  age  was  a  profoundly 
religious  country.  There  was  ignorance,  there  was  superstition, 
there  was  bigotry ;  but  there  was  Faith — a  faith  that  itself  worked 
true  miracles,  even  while  it  believed  in  unreal  ones.  At  this  time, 
also,  one  of  those  devotional  movements  began  among  the  clergy 


292  GREAT   BATTLES    OF    ALL   NATIONS 

in  France,  which  from  time  to  time  occur  in  national  churches, 
>vithout  it  being  possible  for  the  historian  to  assign  any  adequate 
human  cause  for  their  immediate  date  or  extension.  Numberless 
friai-s  and  priests  traversed  the  rural  districts  and  towTis  of  France, 
preaching  to  the  people  that  they  must  seek  from  Heaven  a  deliv- 
erance from  the  pillages  of  the  soldiery  and  the  insolence  of  the 
foreign  oppressors.  The  idea  of  a  Providence  that  works  only  by 
general  laws  was  wholly  alien  to  the  feelings  of  the  age.  Every 
political  event,  as  well  as  every  natural  phenomenon,  was  believed 
to  be  the  immediate  result  of  a  special  mandate  of  God.  This  led 
to  the  belief  that  His  holy  angels  and  saints  were  constantly  em- 
ployed in  executing  His  commands  and  mingling  in  the  affairs  of 
men.  The  Church  encouraged  these  feelings,  and  at  the  same  time 
sanctioned  the  concurrent  popular  belief  that  hosts  of  evil  spirits 
were  also  ever  actively  interposing  in  the  current  of  earthly  events, 
with  whom  sorcerers  and  wizards  could  league  themselves,  and 
thereby  obtain  the  exercise  of  supernatural  power. 

Thus  all  things  favored  the  influence  which  Joan  obtained  both 
over  friends  and  foes.  The  French  nation,  as  well  as  the  English 
and  the  Burgundians,  readily  admitted  that  superhuman  beings  in- 
spired her ;  the  only  question  was  whether  these  beings  were  good 
or  evil  angels;  whether  she  brought  with  her  "airs  from  heaven 
or  blasts  from  hell."  This  question  seemed  to  her  countrymen  to 
be  decisively  settled  in  her  favor  by  the  austere  sanctity  of  her  life, 
by  the  holiness  of  her  conversation,  but  still  more  by  her  exemplary 
attention  to  all  the  services  and  rites  of  the  Church.  The  dauphin 
at  first  feared  the  injury  that  might  be  done  to  his  cause  if  he  laid 
himself  open  to  the  charge  of  having  leagued  himself  with  a  sorcer- 
ess. Every  imaginable  test,  therefore,  was  resorted  to  in  order  to 
set  Joan's  orthodoxy  and  purity  beyond  suspicion.  At  last  Charles 
and  his  advisers  felt  safe  in  accepting  her  services  as  those  of  a  true 
and  virtuous  Christian  daughter  of  the  Hoi)''  Church. 

It  is  indeed  probable  that  Charles  himself  and  some  of  his  coun- 
selors may  have  suspected  Joan  of  being  a  mere  enthusiast,  and  it 
is  certain  that  Dunois,  and  others  of  the  best  generals,  took  consid- 
erable latitude  in  obeying  or  deviating  from  the  military  orders  that 
she  save.     But  over  the  mass  of  the  people  and  the  soldiery  hei 


THE   BATTLE   OF   ORLEANS  293 

influence  was  nnbonnded.     While  Charles  and  his  doctors  ot  the- 
ology and  court  ladies,  had  been  deliberating  as  to  reco^nmng  or 
dismiLsin.^  the  Maid,  a  considerable  period  had  passed  away,  dur- 
i„<,  which  a  small  army,  the  last  gleanings,  as  it  seemed,  of  the 
English  sword,  had  been  assembled  at  Blois,  under  Dnnois,  La 
Hire    XaintraiUes,  and  other  chiefs,  who  to  their  natural  valor 
were  now  beginning  to  unite  the  wisdom  that  is  taught  by  misfort- 
une     It  was  resolved  to  send  Joan  with  this  force  and  a  convoy  of 
provisions  to  Orleans.     The  distress  of  that  city  had  now  become 
urgent      But  the  communication  ^^'ith  the  open  country  was  not 
entirely  cut  oft:  the  Orleannais  had  heard  of  the  Holy  Maid  whom 
Providence  had  raised  up  for  their  deUverance,  and  their  .uessen- 
gers  earnestly  implored  the  dauphin  to  send  her  to  them  without 

"^^^  Joan  appeared  at  the  camp  at  Blois,  clad  in  a  new  suit  of  bril- 
liant white  armor,  mounted  on  a  stately  black  war-horse,  and  with 
a  lance  in  her  right  hand,  which  she  had  learned  to  wield  with  skill 
and  -race      Her  head  was  unhclmeted,  so  that  all  could  behold  her 
fair  and  expressive  features,  her  deep-set  and  earnest  eyes,  and  her 
long  black  hair,  which  was  parted  across  her  forehead,  and  bound 
by  a  ribbon  behind  her  back.     Sne  wore  at  her  side  a  small  battle- 
ax    and  the  consecrated  sword,  marked  on  the  blade  with  five 
crosses,  which  had  at  her  bidding  been  taken  for  her  from  the 
shrine  of  St.  Catharine  at  Fierbois.     A  page  carried  her  banner, 
which  she  had  caused  to  be  made  and  embroidered  as  her  Voices 
enioined.     It  was  white  satin,  strewn  with  fleurs-de-lis;  and  on  it 
were  the  words  "JHESUS  Maria,"  and  the  representation  ot  the 
Saviour  in  His  glory.     Joan  afterward  generally  bore  her  bamier 
herself  in  battle;  she  said  that  though  she  loved  her  sword  much, 
she  loved  her  banner  forty  times  as  much;  and  she  loved  to  cany 
it  because  it  could  not  kill  any  one. 

'  Thus  accoutered,  she  came  to  lead  the  troops  of  France,  who 
looked  with  soldierly  admiration  on  her  well-proportioned  and  up- 
right figure,  the  skiU  with  which  she  managed  her  war-horse  and 
tbe  easy  grace  ^vith  which  she  handled  her  weapons.  Her  ■nilitary 
education  had  been  short,  but  she  had  availed  herself  of  it  well. 
She  had  also  the  good  sense  to  interfere  little  with  the  maneuvers 


294  GREAT    BATTLES    OF    ALL    NATIONS 

of  the  cTOops,  leaving  these  things  to  Dunois,  and  others  whom  she 
had  the  discernment  to  recognize  as  the  best  officers  in  the  camp. 
Her  tactics  in  action  were  simple  enough.  As  she  herself  described 
it,  "I  used  to  say  to  them,  'Go  boldly  in  among  the  English,'  and 
then  I  used  to  go  boldly  in  myself. ' '  Such,  as  she  told  her  inquisi- 
tors, was  the  only  spell  she  used,  and  it  was  one  of  power.  But 
while  interfering  little  with  the  military  discipline  of  the  troops,  in 
all  matters  of  moral  discipline  she  was  inflexibly  strict.  All  the 
abandoned  followers  of  the  camp  were  driven  away.  She  com- 
pelled both  generals  and  soldiers  to  attend  regularly  at  confes- 
sional. Her  chaplain  and  other  priests  marched  with  the  army 
under  her  orders ;  and  at  every  halt  an  altar  was  set  up  and  the 
sacrament  administered.  No  oath  or  foul  language  passed  without 
punishment  or  censure.  Even  the  roughest  and  most  hardened 
veterans  obeyed  her.  They  put  off  for  a  time  the  bestial  coarseness 
which  had  grown  on  them  during  a  life  of  bloodshed  and  rapine; 
they  felt  that  they  must  gc  forth  in  a  new  spirit  to  a  new  career, 
and  acknowledged  the  beauty  of  the  holiness  in  which  the  heaven- 
sent Maid  was  leading  them  to  certain  victory. 

Joan  marched  from  Blois  on  the  35th  of  April  with  a  convoy 
of  provisions  for  Orleans,  accompanied  by  Dunois,  La  Hire,  and 
the  other  chief  captains  of  the  French,  and  on  the  evening  of  the 
28th  they  approached  the  town.  In  the  words  of  the  old  chronicler 
Hall:  "The  Englishmen,  perceiving  that  thei  within  could  not  long 
continue  for  faute  of  vitaile  and  ponder,  kepte  not  their  watche  so 
diligently  as  thei  were  accustomed,  nor  scoured  now  the  countrey 
environed  as  thei  before  had  ordained.  Whiche  negligence  the  citi- 
zens shut  in  perceiving,  sent  worde  thereof  to  the  French  captain  3s, 
which,  with  Pucelle,  in  the  dedde  tyme  of  the  nighte,  and  in  a 
greate  rayne  and  thundere,  with  all  their  vitaile  and  artillery, 
entered  into  the  citie." 

When  it  was  day,  the  j\Iaid  rode  in  solemn  procession  through 
the  city,  clad  in  complete  armor  and  mounted  on  a  white  horse. 
Dunois  was  by  her  side,  and  all  the  bravest  knights  of  her  army 
and  of  the  garrisor  followed  in  her  train.  The  whole  population 
thronged  around  her;  and  men,  women  and  children  strove  to 
touch  her  garments,  or  her  banner,  or  her  charger.     They  poured 


THE    BATTLE    OF    ORLEANS  295 

forth  blessings  on  her,  whom  they  already  considered  their  deliv- 
erer. In  the  words  used  by  two  of  them  afterward  before  the 
tribunal  which  reversed  the  sentence,  but  could  not  restore  the  life 
of  the  ^^rgin-ma^ty^  of  France,  "the  people  of  Orleans,  when  they 
first  saw  her  in  their  city,  thought  that  it  was  an  angel  from  heaven 
that  had  come  down  to  save  them."  Joan  spoke  gently  in  reply 
to  their  acclamations  and  addresses.  She  told  them  to  fear  God, 
and  trust  in  Him  for  safety  from  the  fury  of  their  enemies.  She 
first  went  to  the  principal  church,  where  Te  Deum  was  chanted; 
and  then  she  took  up  her  abode  at  the  house  of  Jacques  Bourgier, 
one  of  the  principal  citizens,  and  whose  ^\afe  was  a  matron  of  good 
repute.  She  refused  to  attend  a  splendid  banquet  which  had  been 
provided  for  her,  and  passed  nearly  all  her  time  in  prayer. 

"When  it  was  kno\\Ti  by  the  Enghsh  that  the  ]\Iaid  ^^as  in  Or- 
leans, their  minds  were  not  less  occupied  about  her  than  were  the 
minds  of  those  in  the  city;  but  it  was  in  a  very  different  spirit. 
The  English  beUeved  in  her  supernatural  mission  as  firmly  as  the 
French  did,  but  they  thought  her  a  sorceress  who  had  come  to 
overthrow  them  bj'  her  enchantments.  An  old  prophecy,  which 
told  that  a  damsel  from  Lorraine  was  to  save  France,  had  long 
been  ctirrent,  and  it  was  known  and  applied  to  Joan  by  foreigners 
as  well  as  by  the  natives.  For  months  the  Enghsh  had  heard  of 
the  coming  Maid,  and  the  tales  of  miracles  which  she  was  said  tc 
have  wrought  had  been  listened  to  by  the  rough  yeomen  of  the 
Enghsh  camp  with  anxious  curiosity  and  secret  awe.  She  had 
sent  a  herald  to  the  English  generals  before  she  marched  for  Or- 
leans, and  he  had  summoned  the  English  generals  in  the  name 
of  the  Most  High  to  give  up  to  the  Maid,  who  was  sent  b}"  Heaven, 
the  keys  of  the  French  cities  which  they  had  wrongfully  taken ; 
and  he  also  solemnly  adjured  the  English  troops,  M^hether  archers, 
or  men  of  the  companies  of  war,  or  gentlemen,  or  others,  who  were 
before  the  city  of  Orleans,  to  depart  thence  to  their  homes,  under 
peril  of  being  visited  by  the  judgment  of  God.  On  her  arrival  in 
Orleans,  Joan  sent  another  similar  message ;  but  the  English  scoffed 
at  her  from  their  towers,  and  threatened  to  bum  her  heralds.  She 
determined,  before  she  shed  the  blood  of  the  besiegers,  to  repeat 
the  warning  with  her  own  voice ;   and,  accordingly,  she  mounted 


?96  GREAT    BATTLES    OF  ALL    NATIONS 

one  of  the  boulevards  of  the  town,  which  was  within  hearing  of 
the  Tourelles,  and  thence  she  spoke  to  the  Enghsh,  and  bade  them 
depart,  otherwise  they  would  meet  with  shame  and  woe.  Sir  Wil- 
liam Gladsdale  (whom  the  French  call  Glacidas)  commanded  the 
English  post  at  the  Tourelles,  and  he  and  another  English  officer 
replied  by  bidding  her  go  home  and  keep  her  cows,  and  by  ribald 
jests  that  brought  tears  of  shame  and  indignation  into  her  eyes. 
But,  though  the  English  leaders  vaunted  aloud,  the  effect  produced 
on  their  army  by  Joan's  presence  in  Orleans  was  proved  four  days 
after  her  arrival,  when,  on  the  approach  of  re-enforcements  and 
stores  to  the  town,  Joan  and  La  Hire  marched  out  to  meet  them, 
and  escorted  the  long  train  of  provision  wagons  safely  into  Orleans, 
between  the  bastiles  of  the  English,  who  cowered  behind  their 
walls  instead  of  charging  fiercely  and  fearlessh",  as  had  been  their 
wont,  on  anj'  French  band  that  dared  to  show  itself  within  reach. 
Thus  far  she  had  prevailed  without  striking  a  blow ;  but  the 
time  was  now  come  to  test  her  courage  amid  the  horrors  of  actual 
slaughter.  On  the  afternoon  of  the  day  on  which  she  had  escorted 
the  re-enforcements  into  the  city,  while  she  was  resting  fatigued 
at  home,  Dunois  had  seized  an  advantageous  opportunity  of  attack- 
ing the  English  bastile  of  St.  Loup,  and  a  fierce  assault  of  the 
OTleannais  had  been  made  on  it,  which  the  English  garrison  of 
the  fort  stubbornly  resisted.  Joan  was  roused  by  a  sound  which 
she  believed  to  be  that  of  her  Heavenly  Voices ;  she  called  for  her 
arms  and  horse,  and  quickly  equipping  herself  she  mounted  to  ride 
off  to  where  the  fight  was  raging.  In  her  haste  she  had  forgotten 
her  banner;  she  rode  back,  and,  without  dismounting,  had  it  given 
to  her  from  the  window,  and  then  she  galloped  to  the  gate  whence 
the  sally  had  been  made.  On  her  way  she  met  some  of  the 
wounded  French  who  had  been  carried  back  from  the  fight. 
"Hal"  she  exclaimed,  "I  never  can  see  French  blood  flow  witli- 
out  my  hair  standing  on  end."  She  rode  out  of  the  gate,  and  met 
the  tide  of  her  countrymen,  who  had  been  repulsed  from  the  En- 
glish fort,  and  were  flying  back  to  Orleans  in  confusion.  At  the 
sight  of  the  Holv  Maid  and  her  banner  they  rallied  and  renewed 
the  assault.  Joan  rode  forward  at  their  head,  waving  her  banner 
and  cheering  them  on.     The  English  quailed  at  what  they  believed 


THE   BATTLE    OF    ORLEANS 


297 


to  be  the  charge  of  hell ;  St.  Loup  was  stormed,  and  its  defenders 
put  to  the  sword,  except  some  few  whom  Joan  succeeded  in  sav- 
ing. All  her  woman's  gentleness  returned  when  the  combat  was 
over.  It  was  the  first  time  that  she  had  ever  seen  a  battlefield. 
She  wept  at  the  sight  of  so  many  bleeding  corpses ;  and  her  tears 
flowed  doubly  when  she  reflected  that  they  were  the  bodies  of 
Christian  men  who  had  died  without  confession. 

The  next  day  was  Ascension  Daj-,  and  it  was  passed  by  Joan 
in  prayer.  But  on  the  following  morrow  it  was  resolved  by  the 
chiefs  of  the  garrison  to  attack  the  Enghsh  forts  on  the  south  of 
the  river.  For  this  purpose  they  crossed  the  river  in  boats,  and 
after  some  severe  fighting,  in  which  the  Maid  was  wounded  in  the 
heel,  both  the  English  bastiles  of  the  Augustins  and  St.  Jean  de 


Blanc  were  captured.  The  Tourelles  were  now  the  only  post  which 
the  besiegers  held  on  the  south  of  the  river.  But  that  post  was 
formidably  strong,  and  by  its  command  of  the  bridge  it  xjas  the 
key  to  the  deliverance  of  Orleans.  It  was  known  that  a  fresh 
Enghsh  army  was  approaching  under  FastoKe  to  re-enforce  the 
besiegers,  and  should  that  army  arrive  while  the  Tourelles  were 
yet  in  the  possession  of  their  comrades  there  was  great  peril  of  all 
the  advantages  which  the  French  had  gained  being  nullified,  and 
of  the  siege  being  again  actively  carried  on. 

It  was  resolved,  therefore,  by  the  French,  to  assail  the  Tourelles 
at  once,  while  the  enthusiasm  which  the  presence  and  the  heroic 
valor  of  the  Maid  had  created  was  at  its  height.  But  the  enter- 
prise was  difficult.  The  rampart  of  the  tete-du-pont,  or  landward 
bulwark,  of  the  Tourelles  was  steep  and  high,  and  Sir  John  Glads- 


298  GREAT   BATTLES   OF   ALL   NATIONS 

dale  occupied  this  all-important  fort  with  five  hundred  archers  and 
men-at-arms,  who  were  the  very  flower  of  the  English  army. 

Early  in  the  morning  of  the  7th  of  May,  some  thousands  of  the 
best  French  troops  in  Orleans  heard  mass  and  attended  the  confes- 
sional by  Joan's  orders,  and  then  crossing  the  river  in  boats,  as  on 
the  preceding  day,  they  assailed  the  bulwark  of  the  Tourelles 
"with  light  hearts  and  heavy  hands."  But  Gladsdale's  men, 
encouraged  by  their  bold  and  skillful  leader,  made  a  resolute  and 
able  defense.  The  Maid  planted  her  banner  on  the  edge  of  the 
fosse,  and  then  springing  down  into  the  ditch,  she  placed  the  first 
ladder  against  the  wall  and  began  to  mount.  An  English  archer 
sent  an  arrow  at  her,  which  pierced  her  corslet,  and  wounded  her 
severely  between  the  neck  and  shoulder.  She  fell  bleeding  from 
the  ladder;  and  the  English  were  leaping  down  from  the  wall  to 
capture  her,  but  her  followers  bore  her  off.  She  was  carried  to 
the  rear,  and  laid  upon  the  grass ;  her  armor  was  taken  off,  and 
the  anguish  of  her  wound  and  the  sight  of  her  blood  made  her  at 
first  tremble  and  weep.  But  her  confidence  in  her  celestial  mis- 
sion soon  returned:  her  patron  saints  seemed  to  stand  before  her 
and  reassure  her.  She  sat  up  and  drew  the  arrow  out  with  her 
own  hands.  Some  of  the  soldiers  who  stood  by  wished  to  standi 
the  blood  by  saying  a  charm  over  the  wound;  but  she  forbade 
them,  saying  that  she  did  not  wish  to  be  cured  b}'  unhallowed 
means.  She  had  the  wound  dressed  with  a  little  oil,  and  then 
bidding  her  confessor  come  to  her,  she  betook  herself  to  prayer. 

In  the  meanwhile,  the  English  in  the  bulwark  of  the  Tourelles 
had  repulsed  the  oft-renewed  efforts  of  the  French  to  scale  the  walL 
Dunois,  who  commanded  the  assailants,  was  at  last  discouraged, 
and  gave  orders  for  a  retreat  to  be  sounded.  Joan  sent  for  him 
and  the  other  generals,  and  implored  them  not  to  despair.  "By 
my  God,"  she  said  to  them,  "you  shall  soon  enter  in  there.  Do 
not  doubt  it.  When  you  see  my  banner  wave  again  up  to  the 
wall,  to  your  arms  again !  the  fort  is  yours.  For  the  present,  rest 
a  little,  and  take  some  food  and  drink."  "They  did  so,"  says  the 
old  chronicler  of  the  siege,  "for  they  obeyed  her  marvelously. " 
The  faintness  caused  by  her  wound  had  now  passed  off,  and  she 
headed   the   French   in   another   rush  against  the  bulwark.     The 


THE   BATTLE    OF    ORLEANS  299 

Englisn,  who  had  thought  her  slain,  were  alarmed  at  her  reap- 
pearance, while  the  French  pressed  furiously  and  f anaticaUy  for- 
ward.    A  Biscayan  soldier  was  carrying  Joan's  banner.     She  had 
told  the   troops  that  directly  the   banner  touched   the  wall  they 
should  enter.     The  Biscayan  waved  the  banner  forward  from  the 
edge  of  the  fosse,  and  touched  the  wall  with  it;  and  then  aU  the 
French  host  swarmed  madly  up  the  ladders  that  now  were  raised 
in  all  directions  against  the  English  fort.     At  this  crisis,  the  efforts 
of  the  Enghsh  garrison  were  distracted  by  an  attack  from  another 
quarter.     The  French  troops  who  had  been  left  in  Orleans  had 
placed  some  planks  over  the  broken  arch  of  the  bridge,  and  ad- 
vanced across  them  to  the  assault  of  the  Tourelles  on  the  northern 
side.     Gladsdale  resolved  to  withdraw  his  men  from  the  landward 
bulwark,  and  concentrate  his  whole  force  in  the  Tourelles  them- 
selves.    He  was  passing  for  this  purpose  across  the  drawbridge 
that  connected  the   Tourelles   and  the  tete-du-pont,  when  Joan, 
who  by  this  time  had  scaled  the  wall  of  the  bulwark,  caUed  out  to 
him,  "Surrender!  surrender  to  the  King  of  Heaven !    Ah,  Glacidas, 
you' have  foully  wronged  me  with  your  words,  but  I  have  great 
pity  on  your  soul  and  the  souls  of  your  men."     The  Enghshman, 
disdainful  of  her  summons,  was  striding  on  across  the  drawbridge 
when  a  cannot-shot  from  the  town  carried  it  away  and  Gladsdale 
perished  in  the  water  that  ran  beneath.     After  his  fall,  the  rem- 
nant of  the  English  abandoned  all  further  resistance.     Three  hun- 
dred of  them  had  been  killed  in  the  battle,  and  two  hundred  were 

made  prisoners. 

The  broken  arch  was  speedily  repaired  by  the  exulting  Orlean- 
nais,  and  Joan  made  her  triumphal  re-entry  into  the  city  by  the 
bridge  that  had  so  long  been  closed.  Every  church  in  Orleans 
rang  out  its  gratulating  peal;  and  throughout  the  night  the  sounds 
of  rejoicing  echoed,  and  the  bonfires  blazed  up  from  the  city.  But 
in  the  lines  and  forts  which  the  besiegers  yet  retained  on  the  north- 
ern shore  there  was  anxious  watching  of  the  generals,  and  there 
was  desponding  gloom  among  the  soldiery.  Even  Talbot  now 
counseled  retreat.  On  the  following  morning,  the  Orieannais, 
from  their  walls,  saw  the  great  forts  called  "London"  and  "St. 
Lawrence"  in  flames,  and  ^vitnessed  their  invaders  busy  in  de^ 


300  GREAT   BATTLES   OF   ALL   NATIONS 

stroying  the  stores  and  munitions  wiiicli  had  been  reUed  on  for 
the  destruction  of  Orleans.  Slowly  and  sullenly  the  English  army 
retired ;  and  not  before  it  had  drawn  up  in  battle  array  opposite  to 
the  city,  as  if  to  challenge  the  garrison  to  an  encounter.  The 
French  troops  were  eager  to  go  out  and  attack,  but  Joan  forbade 
it.  The  day  was  Sunday.  "In  the  name  of  God,"  she  said,  "let 
them  depart,  and  let  us  return  thanks  to  God."  She  led  the  sol- 
diers and  citizens  forth  from  Orleans,  but  not  for  the  shedding  of 
blood.  They  passed  in  solemn  procession  round  the  city  walls,  and 
then,  while  their  retiring  enemies  M'ere  yet  in  sight,  they  knelt  in 
thanksgiving  to  God  for  the  deliverance  which  He  had  vouchsafed 
them. 

Within  three  months  from  the  time  of  her  first  interview  with 
the  Dauphin,  Joan  had  fulfilled  the  first  part  of  her  promise — the 
raising  of  the  siege  of  Orleans.  Within  three  months  more  she 
had  fulfilled  the  second  part  also,  and  had  stood  vnth  her  banner 
in  her  han:l  by  the  high  altar  at  Rheims,  while  he  was  anointed 
and  crowned  as  King  Charles  VII.  of  France.  In  the  interval  she 
had  taken  Jargeau,  Troyes,  and  other  strong  places,  and  she  had 
defeated  an  English  army  in  a  fair  field  at  Pataj-.  The  enthusiasm 
of  her  countrymen  knew  no  bounds ;  but  the  importance  of  her  ser- 
vices, and  especially  of  her  primary  achievement  at  Orleans,  may 
perhaps  be  best  proved  by  the  testimony  of  her  enemies.  There  is 
extant  a  fragment  of  a  letter  from  the  Regent  Bedford  to  his  royal 
nephew,  Henry  VI.,  in  which  he  bewails  the  turn  that  the  war  has 
taken,  and  especially  attributes  it  to  the  raising  of  the  siege  of  Or- 
leans by  Joan.  Bedford's  own  words,  which  are  preserved  in 
Rymer,  are  as  follows: 

"And  alle  thing  there  prospered  for  you  til  the  tyme  of  the 
Siege  of  Orleans  taken  in  hand  God  knoweth  by  what  advis. 

"At  the  whiche  tyme,  after  the  adventure  fallen  to  the  persone 
of  my  cousin  of  Salisbury,  whom  God  assoille,  there  felle,  by  the 
hand  of  God  as  it  seemeth,  a  great  strook  upon  your  peuple  that 
was  assembled  there  in  grete  nombre,  caused  in  grete  partie,  as  y 
trowe,  of  lakke  of  sadde  beleve,  and  of  unlevefulle  doubte,  that 
thei  hadde  of  a  discjple  aud  lyme  of  the  Feende,  called  the  Pucelle, 
that  used  fals  enchantments  and  sorcerie. 


THE    BATTLE    OF    ORLEANS  301 

"The  whiche  strooke  and  discomfiture  nott  oonly  Icssed  in  grete 
partie  the  nombre  of  your  peuple  there,  but  as  well  withdrewe  the 
courage  of  the  remenant  in  merveillous  wyse,  and  couraiged  your 
adverse  partie  and  ennemys  to  assemble  them  forthwith  in  grete 
nombre." 

When  Charles  had  been  anointed  king  of  France,  Joan  believed 
that  her  mission  was  accomplished.  And,  in  truth,  the  dehverance 
of  France  from  the  English,  though  not  completed  for  many  years 
afterward,  was  then  insured.  The  ceremony  of  a  royal  coronation 
and  anointment  was  not  in  those  days  regarded  as  a  mere  costly 
formality.  It  was  believed  to  confer  the  sanction  and  the  grace  of 
heaven  upon  the  prince,  who  had  previously  ruled  with  mere  human 
authority.  Thenceforth  he  was  the  Lord's  Anointed.  Moreover, 
one  of  the  difficulties  that  had  previously  lain  in  the  way  of  many 
Frenchmen  when  called  on  to  support  Charles  VII.  was  now  re- 
moved. He  had  been  pubHcly  stigmatized,  even  by  his  own  par- 
ents, as  no  true  son  of  the  royal  race  of  France.  The  queen- 
mother,  the  English,  and  the  partisans  of  Burgund}-,  called  him 
the  "Pretender  to  the  title  of  dauphin";  but  those  who  had  been 
led  to  doubt  his  legitimacy  were  cured  of  their  skepticism  by  the 
victories  of  the  Holy  Maid,  and  by  the  fulfillment  of  her  pledges. 
They  thought  that  Heaven  had  now  declared  itself  in  favor  of 
Charles  as  the  true  heir  of  the  crown  of  St.  Louis,  and  the  tales 
about  his  being  spurious  were  thenceforth  regarded  as  mere  English 
calumnies.  AVith  this  strong  tide  of  national  feeling  in  his  favor, 
with  ^^ctol•ious  generals  and  soldiers  round  him,  and  a  dispirited 
and  divided  enemy  before  him,  he  could  not  fail  to  conquer,  though 
his  own  imprudence  and  misconduct,  and  the  stubborn  valor  which 
the  English  still  from  time  to  time  displayed,  prolonged  the  war 
in  France  until  the  civil  war  of  the  Roses  broke  out  in  England, 
and  left  France  to  peace  and  repose. 

Joan  knelt  before  the  French  Icing  in  the  cathedral  of  Rheims 
and  shed  tears  of  jo}'.  She  said  that  she  had  then  fulfilled  the 
work  which  the  Lord  had  commanded  her.  The  young  girl  now 
asked  for  her  dismissal.  She  wished  to  return  to  her  peasant 
home,  to  tend  her  parents'  flocks  again,  aud  live  at  her  own  will 
in  her  native  village.     She  had  always  believed  that  her  career 


302  GREAT    BATTLES    OF    ALL    NATIONS 

would  be  a  short  one.  But  Charles  and  his  captains  were  loth  to 
lose  the  presence  of  one  who  had  such  an  influence  upon  the  sol- 
diery and  the  people.  They  persuaded  her  to  stay  wdth  the  army. 
She  still  showed  the  same  bravery  and  zeal  for  the  cause  of  France. 
She  still  was  as  ferv^ent  as  before  in  her  prayers,  and  as  exemplary 
in  all  religious  duties.  She  still  heard  her  Heavenly  Voices,  but  she 
now  no  longer  thought  herself  the  appointed  minister  of  Heaven 
to  lead  her  countrymen  to  certain  victor}'-.  Our  admiration  for  her 
courage  and  patriotism  ought  to  be  increased  a  hundred-fold  by 
her  conduct  throughout  the  latter  part  of  her  career,  amid  dangers 
against  which  she  no  longer  believed  herself  to  be  divinely  secured. 
Indeed,  she  believed  herself  doomed  to  perish  in  a  little  more  than 
a  year ;  but  she  still  fought  on  as  resolutely,  if  not  as  exultingly, 
as  ever. 

She  served  well  with  Charles's  army  in  the  capture  of  Laon, 
Soissons,  Compiegne,  Beauvais,  and  other  strong  places ;  but  in  a 
premature  attack  on  Paris,  in  September,  1420,  the  French  were 
repulsed,  and  Joan  was  severely  wounded.  In  the  winter  she  was 
again  in  the  field  with  some  of  the  French  troops,  and  in  the  fol- 
lowing spring  she  threw  herself  into  the  fortress  of  Compiegne, 
which  she  had  herself  won  for  the  French  king  in  the  preceding 
autumn,  and  which  was  now  besieged  by  a  strong  Burgundian 
force. 

She  was  taken  prisoner  in  a  sally  from  Compiegne,  on  the  24th 
of  May,  and  was  imprisoned  by  the  Burgundians  first  at  Arras, 
and  then  at  a  place  called  Crotoy,  on  the  Flemish  coast,  until 
November,  when,  for  payment  of  a  large  sum  of  money,  she 
was  given  up  to  the  English,  and  taken  to  Rouen,  which  then 
was  their  main  stronghold  in  France. 

"Sorrow  it  were,  and  shame  to  tell. 
The  butchery  that  there  befell. ' ' 

Tried  on  the  charge  of  witchcraft,  she  was  burned  alive  on  the 
30th  of  May,  1431,  in  the  market-place  at  Rouen.  Twentj'-one 
years  later  the  English  were  finally  expelled  from  France. 

[Creasy. 


CHAPTER   XIV 
THE   FALL  OF  GRANADA 

THE    GREAT    STRUGGLE    BETWEEN    THE    MOORS    UNDER    BOABDIL 

AND  THE  CHRISTIANS   UNDER   FERDINAND  V.— THE  PASSING 

OF  THE    CRESCENT  FROM  SPAIN 

A.  D.   1491 

THE  conquest  of  Granada  is  one  of  history's  most  famous 
events.  After  a  dominion  of  seven  hundred  and  eighty- 
two  years,  Granada  itself  constituted  the  last  of  all  the 
Moorish  possessions  in  Spain.  "This  renowned  kingdom,"  says 
Washington  Irving,  "was  situated  in  the  southern  part  of  Spain, 
bordering  on  the  Mediterranean  Sea,  and  defended  on  the  land  side 
by  lofty  mountains,  locking  within  their  embraces  rich  valleys, 
where  the  sterility  of  the  surrounding  heights  was  repaid  by  prodi- 
gal fertility.  The  city  of  Granada  lay  in  the  center  of  the  king- 
dom, sheltered  as  it  were  in  the  lap  of  the  Sierra  Nevada,  or  chain 
of  snowy  mountains.  It  covered  two  lofty  hills,  and  a  deep  valley 
which  divides  them,  through  which  flows  the  river  Darro.  One 
of  these  hills  was  crowned  by  the  royal  palace  and  fortress  of  the 
Alhambra,  capable  of  containing  forty  thousand  men  within  its 
walls  and  towers.  There  is  a  Moorish  tradition  that  the  king  who 
built  this  mighty  pile  was  skilled  in  the  occult  sciences,  and  fur- 
nished himself  with  gold  and  silver  for  the  purpose  by  means  of 
alchemy.  Certainly,  never  was  there  an  edifice  accomplished  in  a 
superior  style  of  barbaric  magnificence;  and  the  stranger  who, 
even  at  the  present  day,  wanders  among  its  silent  and  deserted 
courts  and  ruined  halls,  gazes  with  astonishment  at  its  gilded  and 
fretted  domes  and  luxurious  decorations,  still  retaining  their  bril- 
liancy and  beauty  in  defiance  of  the  ravages  of  time. 

(303) 


304  GREAT    BATTLES    OF   ALL   NATIONS 

"Opposite  to  the  hill  on  which  stood  the  Alhambra  was  its  rival 
hill,  on  the  summit  of  which  was  a  spacious  plain,  covered  with 
houses  and  crowded  with  inhabitants.  It  was  commanded  by  a 
fortress  called  the  Alcazaba.  The  declivities  and  skirts  of  these 
hills  were  covered  with  houses  to  the  number  of  seventy  thousand, 
separated  by  narrow  streets  and  small  squares,  according  to  the 
custom  of  Moorish  cities.  The  houses  had  interior  courts  and  gar- 
dens, refreshed  by  fountains  and  running  streams,  and  set  out  with 
oranges,  citrons,  and  pomegranates,  so  that,  as  the  edifices  of  the 
city  rose  above  each  other  on  the  sides  of  the  hill,  the}-  presented 
a  mingled  appearance  of  city  and  grove,  deUghtful  to  the  eye. 
The  whole  was  surrounded  bj-  high  walls,  three  leagues  in  circuit, 
with  twelve  gates,  and  fortified  by  a  thousand  and  thirty  towers. 
The  elevation  of  the  city  and  the  neighborhood  of  the  Sierra 
ISTevada  crowned  with  perpetual  snows,  tempered  the  fervid  rays 
of  summer ;  so  that  while  other  cities  were  panting  with  the  sultry 
and  stifling  heat  of  the  dog-days,  the  most  salubrious  breezes  played 
through  the  marble  hails  of  Granada. 

"The  glory  of  the  city,  however,  w^as  its  vega  or  plain,  which 
spread  out  to  a  circumference  of  thirty-seven  leagues,  surrounded 
by  lofty  mountains.  It  was  a  vast  garden  of  delight,  refreshed  by 
numerous  fountains,  and  by  the  silver  windings  of  the  Xenil.  The 
labor  and  ingenuity  of  the  Moors  had  diverted  the  waters  of  this 
river  into  thousands  of  rills  and  streams,  and  diffused  them  over 
the  whole  surface  of  the  plain.  Indeed,  they  had  wrought  up  this 
happy  region  to  a  degree  of  wonderful  prosperity,  and  took  a  pride 
in  decorating  it,  as  if  it  had  been  a  favorite  mistress.  The  hills 
were  clothed  ^^^th  orchards  and  vineyards,  the  valleys  embroidered 
with  gardens,  and  the  wide  plains  covered  with  waving  grain. 
Here  were  seen  in  profusion  the  orange,  the  citron,  the  fig  and 
pomegranate,  with  great  plantations  of  mulberry  trees,  from 
which  was  produced  the  finest  of  silk.  The  vine  clambered 
from  tree  to  tree;  the  grapes  hung  in  rich  clusters  about  the 
peasants'  cottage,  and  the  groves  were  rejoiced  by  the  perpetual 
song  of  the  nightingale.  In  a  word,  so  beautiful  was  the  earth, 
so  pure  the  air,  and  so  serene  the  sky  of  this .  delicious  region, 
that   the   Moors    imagined    the    paradise   of   their    prophet   to   be 


THE    FALL    OF   GRANADA  305 

situated  in  that  part  of  the  heaven  which  overhung  the  kingdom 
of  Granada. 

"This  rich  and  populous  territory  had  been  left  in  quiet  posses- 
sion of  the  Infidels,  on  condition  of  an  annual  tribute  to  the  sov- 
ereign of  Castile  and  Leon  of  two  thousand  doblas  or  pistoles  of 
gold,  and  sixteen  hundred  Christian  captives;  or,  in  default  of 
captives,  an  equal  number  of  Moors  to  be  surrendered  as  slaves; 
all  to  be  delivered  in  the  city  of  Cordova. ' ' 

This  tribute  Muley  Aben  Hassan  refused  to  pa}'.  Ferdinand 
and  Isabella  reigned  then  over  the  united  kingdoms  of  Castile, 
Leon  and  Aragon.  The  result  of  the  refusal  was  the  attack  and 
capture  of  many  of  the  outlying  cities  of  the  realm.  Meanwhile 
Hassan's  son,  Boabdil,  revolted  against  his  father  and  seized  the 
throne.  Taken  by  Ferdinand  at  Loxa,  he  was  released  on  agree- 
ing that,  if,  in  addition  to  the  towns  already  captured,  the  cities  of 
Guadix,  Baza  and  Almeria  should  be  captured  as  well,  he  would 
surrender  Granada.  In  accordance  with  the  terms  of  this  agree- 
ment, Ferdinand  ultimately  informed  him  that  Guadix,  Baza  and 
Almeria  had  fallen,  and  called  upon  him  to  fulfill  his  promise. 

"If  the  unfortunate  Boabdil,"  says  Washington  Irving,  "had 
possessed  the  will  he  had  not  the  power  to  comply  with  this  de- 
mand. He  was  shut  up  in  the  Alhambra,  while  a  tempest  of  popu- 
lar fury  raged  without.  Granada  was  thronged  by  refugees  from 
the  captured  towns,  many  of  them  disbanded  soldiers,  and  others, 
broken-down  citizens,  rendered  fierce  and  desperate  by  ruin.  All 
railed  at  Boabdil  as  the  real  cause  of  their  misfortunes.  How  was 
he  to  venture  forth  in  such  a  storm? — above  all,  how  was  he  to  talk 
to  such  men  of  surrender?  In  his  reply  to  Ferdinand  he  repre- 
sented the  diflficulties  of  his  situation,  and  that,  so  far  from  having 
control  over  his  subjects,  his  very  life  was  in  danger  from  their 
turbulence.  He  entreated  the  king,  therefore,  to  rest  satisfied  for 
the  present  with  his  recent  conquests,  promising  him  that  should 
he  be  able  to  regain  full  empire  over  his  capital  and  its  inhabitants 
it  would  but  be  to  rule  over  them  as  vassal  to  the  Castilian  crown. 
"Ferdinand  was  not  to  be  satisfied  with  such  a  reply.  The 
time  was  come  to  bring  his  game  of  policy  to  a  close,  and  to  con- 
summate his  conquest   by  seating  himself  on  the   throne  of   the 


306  GREAT   BATTLES   OF   ALL   NATIONS 

Alhambra.  Professing  to  consider  Boabdil  as  a  faithless  ally,  who 
had  broken  his  plighted  word,  he  discarded  him  from  his  friend- 
ship, and  addressed  a  second  letter,  not  to  that  monarch,  but  to  the 
commanders  and  council  of  the  city.  He  demanded  a  complete 
surrender  of  the  place,  with  all  the  arms  in  the  possession  either 
of  the  citizens  or  of  others  who  had  recently  taken  refuge  within 
its  walls. 

"The  message  of  the  Catholic  monarch  produced  the  greatest 
commotion  in  the  city.  The  inhabitants  of  the  Alcaiceria,  that 
busy  hive  of  traffic,  and  all  others  who  had  tasted  the  sweets  of 
gainful  commerce  during  the  late  cessation  of  hostilities,  were  for 
securing  their  golden  advantages  by  timely  submission;  others, 
who  had  wives  and  children,  looked  on  them  with  tenderness  and 
solicitude,  and  dreaded,  by  resistance,  to  bring  upon  them  the 
horrors  of  slavery. 

"But,  on  the  other  hand,  Granada  was  crowded  with  men  from 
all  parts,  ruined  by  th  war,  exasperated  by  their  sufferings,  and 
eager  only  for  revenge ;  with  others,  who  had  been  reared  amid 
hostilities,  who  had  lived  by  the  sword,  and  whom  a  return  of 
peace  would  leave  without  home  or  hope.  Besides  these,  there 
were  others  no  less  fiery  and  warlike  in  disposition,  but  animated 
by  a  loftier  spirit.  These  were  valiant  and  haughty  cavaliers  of 
the  old  chivalrous  lineages,  who  had  inherited  a  deadly  hatred  to 
the  Christians  from  a  long  hne  of  warrior  ancestors,  and  to  whom 
the  idea  was  worse  than  death,  that  Granada,  illustrious  Granada ! 
for  ages  the  seat  of  Moorish  grandeur  and  delight,  should  become 
the  abode  of  unbelievers. 

"Among  these  cavaliers  the  most  eminent  was  Muza  ben  Abil 
Gazan.  He  was  of  royal  lineage,  of  a  proud  and  generous  nature, 
and  a  form  combining  manly  strength  and  beauty.  None  could 
excel  him  in  the  management  of  the  horse  and  dexterous  use  of  all 
kinds  of  weapons :  his  gracefulness  and  skill  in  the  tourney  were 
the  theme  of  praise  among  the  Moorish  dames,  and  his  prowess  in 
the  field  had  made  him  the  terror  of  the  enemy.  He  had  long 
repined  at  the  timid  policy  of  Boabdil,  and  had  endeavored  to 
counteract  its  enervating  effects,  and  to  keep  alive  the  martial 
spirit  of  Granada.     For  this  reason,  he  had  promoted  jousts  and 


THE    FALL    OF    GRANADA  307 

tiltings  with  the  reed,  and  all  those  other  public  games  which  bear 
the  semblance  of  war.  He  endeavored  also  to  inculcate  into  his 
companions-in-arms  those  high  chivalrous  sentiments  which  lead 
to  valiant  and  magnanimous  deeds,  but  which  are  apt  to  decline 
with  the  independence  of  a  nation.  The  generous  efforts  of  Muza 
had  been  in  a  great  measure  successful:  he  was  the  idol  of  the 
youthful  cavaliers;  they  regarded  him  as  a  mirror  of  chivalry,  and 
endeavored  to  imitate  his  lofty  and  heroic  virtues. 

"When  Muza  heard  the  demand  of  Ferdinand,  that  they  should 
deliver  up  their  arms,  his  eye  flashed  fire:  'Does  the  Christian  king 
think  that  we  are  old  men,'  said  he,  'and  that  staffs  will  suffice  us? 
— or  that  we  are  women,  and  can  be  contented  with  distaffs?  Let 
him  know  that  a  Moor  is  born  to  the  spear  and  scimiter ;  to  career 
the  steed,  bend  the  bow,  and  lanch  the  javelin:  deprive  him  of 
these,  and  you  deprive  him  of  his  nature.  If  the  Christian  king 
desires  our  arms,  let  him  come  and  win  them;  but  let  him  win 
them  dearly.  For  my  part,  sweeter  were  a  grave  beneath  the  walls 
of  Granada,  on  the  spot  I  had  died  to  defend,  than  the  richest 
couch  within  her  palaces,  earned  by  submission  to  the  vmbeliever.' 

"The  words  of  Muza  were  received  with  enthusiastic  shouts  by 
the  warlike  part  of  the  populace.  Granada  once  more  awoke,  as 
a  warrior  shaking  off  a  disgraceful  lethargy.  The  commanders 
and  council  partook  of  the  public  excitement,  and  dispatched  a 
reply  to  the  Christian  sovereigns,  declaring  that  they  would  suffer 
death  rather  than  surrender  their  city. 

"When  King  Ferdinand  received  the  defiance  of  the  Moors  he 
made  preparations  for  bitter  hostilities.  The  winter  season  did  not 
admit  of  an  immediate  campaign ;  he  contented  himself,  therefore, 
with  throwing  strong  garrisons  into  all  his  towns  and  fortresses  in 
the  neighborhood  of  Granada,  and  gave  the  command  of  all  the 
frontier  of  Jaen  to  Inigo  Lopez  de  Mendoza,  count  of  Tendilla,  who 
had  shown  such  consummate  vigilance  and  address  in  maintaining 
the  dangerous  post  of  Alhama.  This  renowned  veteran  established 
his  headquarters  in  the  mountain  city  of  Alcala  la  Real,  within 
eight  leagues  of  the  city  of  Granada,  and  commanding  the  most 
important  passes  of  that  rugged  frontier. 

"In  the  meantime,  the  city  of  Granada  resounded  with  the  stir 


308  GREAT    BATTLES    OF    ALL    NATIONS 

of  war.  The  ehi^'ally  of  the  nation  had  again  control  of  its  couh- 
cils ;  and  the  j^opulace,  having  once  more  resumed  their  weapons, 
were  anxious  to  wipe  out  the  disgrace  of  their  late  passive  submis- 
sion, by  signal  and  daring  exploits. 

"Muza  ben  Abil  Gazan  was  the  soul  of  action.  He  commanded 
the  cavalry,  which  he  had  disciplined  with  uncommon  skill:  he 
was  surrounded  by  the  noblest  youth  of  Granada,  who  had  caught 
his  own  generous  and  martial  fire,  and  panted  for  the  field;  while 
the  common  soldiers,  devoted  to  his  person,  were  readj-  to  follow 
him  in  the  most  desperate  enterprises.  He  did  not  allow  their 
courage  to  cool  for  want  of  action.  The  gates  of  Granada  once 
more  poured  forth  legions  of  light  scouring  cavalry,  which  skirred 
the  country-  up  to  the  veiy  gates  of  the  Christian  fortresses,  sweep- 
ing off  flocks  and  herds.  The  name  of  Muza  became  formidable 
throughout  the  frontier;  he  had  many  encounters  with  the  enemy 
in  the  rough  passes  of  the  mountains,  in  which  the  superior  light- 
ness and  dexterity  of  his  cavalry  gave  him  the  advantage.  The 
sight  of  his  glistening  legion,  returning  across  the  vega  with  long 
cavalgadas  of  booty,  was  hailed  b}'  the  Moors  as  a  revival  of  their 
ancient  triumphs;  but  when  the}' beheld  Christian  banners  borno 
into  their  gates  as  trophies,  the  exultation  of  the  light-minded 
populace  was  bej'ond  all  bounds. 

"The  winter  passed  awaj^;  the  spring  advanced;  3-et  Ferdinand 
delayed  to  take  the  field.  He  knew  the  city  of  Granada  to  be  too 
strong  and  populous  to  be  taken  by  assault,  and  too  full  of  provis- 
ions to  be  speedily  reduced  by  siege.  'We  must  have  patience  and 
perseverance,'  said  the  politic  monarch;  'by  ravaging  the  country 
this  year  we  shall  produce  a  scarcity  the  next,  and  then  the  city 
may  be  invested  with  effect. ' 

"An  interval  of  peace,  aided  b}'  the  quick  vegetation  of  a  jirolific 
soil  and  happy  climate,  had  restort'd  the  A-ega  to  all  its  luxuriance 
and  beauty ;  the  green  pastures  on  the  borders  of  the  Xenil  were 
covered  with  flocks  and  herds;  the  blooming  orchards  gave  promise 
of  abundant  fruit,  and  the  open  plain  was  waving  with  ripening 
com.  The  time  was  at  hand  to  put  in  the  sickle  and  reap  the 
golden  liHrvest,  when  suddenly  a  torrent  of  war  came  sweeping 
down  from  the  mountains ;   and  Ferdinand,  with  an  army  of  live 


THE   FALL    OF   GRANADA  309 

thousand  horse  and  twenty  thousand  foot,  appeared  before  the 
walls  of  Granada.  He  had  left  the  queen  and  princess  at  the 
fortress  of  Moclin,  and  came  attended  by  the  Duke  of  Medina 
Sidonia,  the  Marques  of  Cadiz,  the  Marques  de  Villena,  the  Counts 
of  Urena  and  Cabra,  Don  Alvnzo  de  Aguilar,  and  other  renowned 
cavaliers.  On  this  occasion.  King  Ferdinand  for  the  first  time  led 
his  son  Prince  Juan  into  the  field,  and  bestowed  upon  him  the  dig- 
nity of  knighthood.  As  if  to  stimulate  him  to  grand  achievements, 
the  ceremony  took  place  on  the  banks  (jf  the  grand  canal,  almost 
beneath  the  embattled  walls  of  that  warlike  citj-,  the  object  of  such 
daring  enterprises,  and  in  the  midst  of  that  famous  vega  which  had 
been  the  field  of  so  many  chivalrous  exploits.  Above  them  shone 
resplendent  the  red  towers  of  the  Alhambra,  lising  from  amid  deli- 
cious groves,  Avith  the  standard  of  Mohammed  waving  defiance  to 
the  Christian  arms. 

"The  Duke  of  Medina  Sidonia,  and  the  A''aliant  Roderigo  Ponce 
de  Leon,  marques  of  Cadiz,  were  sponsors;  and  all  the  chivalry  of 
the  camp  was  assembled  on  the  occasion.  The  prince,  after  he 
Avas  knighted,  bestowed  the  same  honor  on  several  youthful  cava- 
liers of  high  rank,  just  entering,  like  himself,  on  the  career  of  arms. 

'"Ferdinand  did  not  loiter  in  carrying  his  desolating  plans  into 
execution.  He  detached  parties  in  every  direction  to  lay  waste  the 
country;  villages  were  sacked,  burned,  and  destroyed,  and  the 
lovely  vega  once  more  laid  waste  with  fire  and  sword.  The  rav- 
age was  carried  so  close  to  Granada  that  the  city  was  wrapped  in 
the  smoke  of  its  gardens  and  hamlets.  The  dismal  cloud  rolled  up 
the  hill  and  hung  about  the  towers  of  the  Alhambra,  wdiere  the 
unfortunate  Boabdil  still  remained  shut  up  from  the  indignation 
of  his  subjects.  The  hapless  monarch  smote  his  breast,  as  he 
looked  down  from  his  mountain  palace  on  the  desolation  effected 
by  his  late  ally.  He  dared  not  even  show  himself  in  arms  among 
the  populace,  for  they  cursed  him  as  the  cause  of  the  miseries  once 
more  brought  to  their  dooi*s. 

"The  Moors,  however,  did  not  suffer  the  Christians  to  carry  on 
their  ravages  as  unmolested  as  in  former  years.  Muza  incited 
them  to  incessant  sallies.  He  divided  his  cavalry  into  small  squad- 
rons, each  led  by  a  daring  commander.     They  were  taught  to  hover 


310  GREAT   BATTLES   OF  ALL   NATIONS 

round  the  Christian  camp ;  to  harass  it  from  various  and  opposite 
quarters,  cutting  off  convoys  and  straggling  detachments ;  to  way- 
lay the  army  in  its  ravaging  expeditions,  lurking  among  rocks  and 
passes  of  the  mountains,  or  in  hollows  and  thickets  of  the  plain, 
and  practicing  a  thousand  stratagems  and  surprises. 

"The  Christian  army  had  one  day  spread  itself  out  rather 
unguardedly  in  its  foraging  about  the  vega.  As  the  troops  com- 
manded by  the  Marques  of  Villena  approached  the  skirts  of  the 
mountains,  they  beheld  a  number  of  Moorish  peasants  hastily  driv- 
ing a  herd  of  cattle  into  a  narrow  glen.  The  soldiers,  eager  for 
booty,  pressed  in  pursuit  of  them.  Scarcely  had  they  entered  the 
glen,  when  shouts  arose  from  every  side,  and  they  were  furiously 
attacked  by  an  ambuscade  of  horse  and  foot.  Some  of  the  Chris- 
tians took  to  flight ;  others  stood  their  ground  and  fought  valiantly. 
The  Moors  had  the  vantage-ground;  some  showered  darts  and 
arrows  from  the  chffs  of  the  rocks,  others  fought  hand  to  -hand 
on  the  plain;  while  their  cavalrj^,  rapid  as  lightning  in  their 
movements,  carried  havoc  and  confusion  into  the  midst  of  the 
Christian  forces. 

"The  Marques  de  Villena,  with  his  brother  Don  Alonzo  de 
Pacheco,  at  the  first  onset  of  the  Moors,  spurred  into  the  hottest 
of  the  fight.  They  had  scarce  entered,  when  Don  Alonzo  was 
struck  hfeless  from  his  horse,  before  the  eyes  of  his  brother. 
Estevan  de  Luzon,  a  gallant  captain,  fell  fighting  bravely  by  the 
side  of  the  marques,  who  remained,  with  his  chamberlain  Solier 
and  a  handful  of  knights,  surrounded  by  the  enemy.  Several 
cavaliers  from  other  parts  of  the  army  hastened  to  their  assist- 
ance, when  King  Ferdinand,  seeing  that  the  Moors  had  the  van- 
tage-ground and  that  the  Christians  were  suffering  severely,  gave 
signal  for  retreat.  The  marques  obeyed  slowly  and  reluctantly, 
for  his  heart  was  full  of  grief  and  rage  at  the  death  of  his  brother. 
As  he  was  retiring,  he  beheld  his  faithful  chamberlain  Solier  de- 
fending himself  valiantly  against  six  Moors.  The  marques  turned, 
and  rushed  to  his  rescue ;  he  killed  two  of  the  enemy  mth  his  o-wm 
hand,  and  put  the  rest  to  flight.  One  of  the  Moors,  however,  in 
retreating,  rose  in  his  stirrups,  and,  hurling  his  lance  at  the  mar- 
ques, wounded  him  in  the  right  arm  and  crippled  him  for  life. 


THE    FALL    OF    GRANADA  311 

"Such  was  one  of  the  many  ambuscadoes  concerted  by  Muza; 
nor  did  he  hesitate  at  times  to  present  a  bold  front  to  the  Christian 
forces,  and  to  defy  them  in  the  open  field.  King  Ferdinand  soon 
perceived,  however,  that  the  Moors  seldom  provoked  a  battle  with- 
out having  the  advantage  of  the  ground;  and  that  though  the 
Christians  generally  appeared  to  have  the  victory,  they  suffered 
th^  greatest  loss ;  for  retreating  was  a  part  of  the  Moorish  system, 
by  which  they  would  draw  their  pursuers  into  confusion,  and  then 
turn  upon  them  with  a  more  violent  and  fatal  attack.  He  com- 
manded his  captains,  therefore,  to  decline  all  challenges  to  skir- 
mish, and  to  pursue  a  secure  system  of  destruction,  ravaging  tlio 
country,  and  doing  all  possible  injury  to  the  enemy  with  slight  risk 
to  themselves. 

"About  two  leagues  from  Granada,  on  an  eminence  command- 
ing an  extensive  view  of  the  vega,  stood  the  strong  Moorish  castle 
of  Roma,  a  great  place  of  refuge  and  security.  Hither  the  neigh- 
boring peasantry  drove  their  flocks  and  herds,  and  hurried  with 
their  most  precious  effects,  on  the  irruption  of  a  Christian  force; 
and  any  foraging  or  skirmishing  party  from  Granada,  on  being 
intercepted  in  their  return,  threw  themselves  into  Roma,  manned 
its  embattled  towers,  and  set  the  enemy  at  defiance.  The  garrison 
were  accustomed  to  these  sudden  claims  upon  their  protection ;  to 
have  parties  of  Moors  clattering  up  to  their  gates,  so  hotly  pursued 
that  there  was  barely  time  to  throw  open  the  portal,  receive  them 
within,  and  shut  out  their  pursuers ;  while  the  Christian  cavaliers 
had  man}'  a  time  reined  in  their  panting  steeds,  at  the  very  en- 
trance of  the  barbacan,  and  retired,  cursing  the  strong  walls  of 
Roma  that  robbed  them  of  their  prey. 

"The  late  ravages  of  Ferdinand  and  the  continual  skirmishings 
in  the  vega  had  roused  the  vigilance  of  the  castle.  One  morning 
early,  as  the  sentinels  kept  watch  upon  the  battlements,  they  be- 
held a  cloud  of  dust  advancing  rapidly  from  a  distance:  turbans 
and  Moorish  weapons  soon  caught  their  eyes ;  and  as  the  whole 
approached,  they  descried  a  drove  of  cattle,  urged  on  in  great  haste 
and  convoj'ed  by  one  himdred  and  fifty  Moors,  who  led  with  them 
two  Christian  captives  in  chains. 

"When  the  cavalgada  had  arrived  near  to  the  castle,  a  Moorish 


312  GREAT    BATTLES    OF    ALL    NATIONS 

cavalier  of  uoble  and  commanding  mien  and  splendid  attire  rode  up 
to  the  foot  of  the  tower  and  entreated  admittance.  He  stated  that 
they  were  returning  with  rich  booty  from  a  foray  into  the  lands  of 
the  Christians,  but  that  the  enemy  was  on  their  traces  and  they 
feared  to  be  overtaken  before  they  could  reach  Granada.  The 
sentinels  descended  in  all  haste,  and  flung  open  the  gates.  The 
long  cavalgada  defiled  into  the  courts  of  the  castle,  which  were 
soon  filled  with  lowing  and  bleating  flocks  and  herds,  with  neigh- 
ing and  stampmg-  steeds,  and  Avith  fierce-looking  Moors  from  the 
mountains.  The  cavalier  Avho  had  asked  admission  was  the  chief 
of  the  party;  he  was  somewhat  advanced  in  life,  of  a  lofty  and 
gallant  bearing,  and  had  ^vjth.  him  a  son,  a  young  man  of  great 
fire  and  spirit.  Close  by  them  followed  the  two  Christian  captives, 
"wath  looks  cast  down  and  disconsolate. 

"The  soldiers  of  the  garrison  had  roused  themselves  from  their 
sleep,  and  were  busily  occupied  attending  to  the  cattle  which 
crowded  the  courts;  while  the  foraging  party  distributed  them- 
selves about  the  castle  to  seek  refreshment  or  repose.  Suddenly 
a  shout  arose  that  was  echoed  from  courtyard,  and  hall,  and  bat- 
tlement. The  garrison,  astonished  and  bewildered,  would  have 
rushed  to  their  arms,  but  found  themselves,  almost  before  they 
could  make  resistance,  completeh"  in  the  power  of  an  enemy. 

"The  pretended  foraging  party  consisted  of  Mudexares  or  Moors 
tributaiy  to  the  Christians ;  and  the  commanders  were  the  Prince 
Cidi  Yahye  and  his  son  Alnayer.  They  had  hastened  from  the 
mountains  with  this  small  force  to  aid  the  Catholic  sovereigns 
during  the  summer's  campaign;  and  the}'  had  concerted  to  sur- 
prise this  important  castle,  and  present  it  to  King  Ferdinand,  as 
gage  of  their  faith  and  the  first  fruits  of  their  devotion. 

"The  polite  monarch  overwhelmed  his  new  converts  and  allies 
witli  favors  and  distinctions,  in  return  for  this  important  acquisi- 
tion; but  he  took  care  to  dispatch  a  strong  force  of  veteran  and 
genuine  Christian  troops  to  man  the  fortress. 

".Vs  to  the  Moors  who  had  composed  the  garrison,  Cidi  Yahye 
remembered  that  they  were  his  countrymen,  and  could  not  prevail 
Tipon  himself  to  deliver  them  into  Christian  bondage.  He  set  them 
at  liberty,  and  permitted  them  to  repair  to  Granada — 'A  proof, 


THE    FALL    OF   GRANADA  313 

says  the  pious  Agapida,  'that  his  conversion  was  not  entirely  con- 
summated, but  that  there  were  still  some  liugerings  of  the  Infidel 
in  his  heart. '  His  lenity  was  far  f r(jm  procuring  him  indulgence 
in  the  opinions  of  his  countrymen ;  on  the  contrary,  the  inhabitants 
of  Granada,  when  they  learned  from  the  liberated  garrison  the 
stratagem  by  which  Roma  had  been  captured,  cursed  Cidi  Yahye 
for  a  traitor ;  and  the  garrison  joined  in  the  malediction, 

' '  But  the  indignation  of  the  people  of  Granada  was  destined  to 
be  aroused  to  tenfold  violence.  The  old  warrior  Muley  Abdalla  el 
Zagal  had  retired  to  his  little  mountain  territory,  and  for  a  short 
time  endeavored  to  console  himself  with  his  petty  title  of  king  of 
Andarax.  He  soon  grew  impatient,  however,  of  the  quiet  and 
inaction  of  his  mimic  kingdom.  His  fierce  spirit  was  exasperated 
by  being  shut  up  within  such  narrow  limits,  and  his  hatred  rose  to 
downright  fur}-  against  Boabdil,  whom  he  considered  as  the  cause 
of  his  downfall.  AVhen  tidings  were  brought  him  that  King  Fer- 
dinand was  laying  waste  the  vega,  he  took  a  sudden  resolution. 
Assembling  the  whole  disposable  force  of  his  kingdom,  which 
amounted  to  but  two  hundred  men,  he  descended  from  the 
Alpuxarras  and  sought  the  Christian  camp,  content  to  serve  as 
a  vassal  the  enemy  of  his  faith  and  his  nation,  so  that  he  might 
see  Granada  wrested  from  the  sway  of  his  nephew. 

"In  his  blind  passion,  the  old  wrathful  monarch  injured  his 
cause  and  strengthened  the  cause  of  his  adversary.  The  Moors 
of  Granada  had  been  clamorous  in  his  praise,  extolling  him  as  a 
victim  to  his  patriotism,  and  had  refused  to  believe  all  reports  of 
his  treaty  with  the  Christians;  but  when  they  beheld,  from  the 
walls  of  the  cit}^  his  banner  mingling  with  the  banners  of  the 
unbelievers,  and  arrayed  against  his  late  people,  and  the  capital 
he  had  commanded,  they  broke  forth  into  curses  and  revilings, 
and  heaped  all  kind  of  stigmas  tipon  his  name. 

"Their  next  emotion,  of  course,  was  in  favor  of  Boabdil.  They 
gathered  under  the  walls  of  the  AUiambra,  and  hailed  him  as  their 
only  hope,  as  the  sole  dependence  of  the  country.  Boabdil  could 
scarcely  believe  his  senses  when  he  heard  his  name  mingled  with 
praises  and  greeted  with  acclamations.  Encouraged  by  this  un- 
expected gleam  of  popularity,  he  ventured  forth  from  his  retreat 


314  GREAT    BATTLES    OF    ALL    NATIONS 

and  was  received  with  rapture.  All  his  past  errors  were  attributed 
to  the  hardships  of  his  fortune,  and  the  usurpation  of  his  tyrant 
uncle ;  and  whatever  breath  the  populace  could  spare  from  uttering 
curses  on  El  Zagal  was  expended  in  shouts  in  honor  of  El  Chico. 

"For  thirty  days  had  the  vega  been  overrun  by  the  Christian 
forces;  and  that  vast  plain,  late  so  luxuriant  and  beautiful,  was 
one  wide  scene  of  desolation.  The  destroying  armj',  having  ac- 
complished its  task,  passed  over  the  bridge  of  Pinos  and  wound 
up  into  the  mountains,  on  the  way  to  Cordova,  bearing  away  the 
spoils  of  towns  and  villages,  and  driving  off  flocks  and  herds  in 
long  dusty  columns.  The  sound  of  the  last  Christian  trumpet  died 
awaj'-  along  the  side  of  the  mountain  of  Elvira,  and  not  a  hostile 
squadron  was  seen  glistening  on  the  mournful  fields  of  the  vega. 

"The  eyes  of  Boabdil  el  Chico  were  at  length  ojaened  to  the  real 
policy  of  King  Ferdinand,  and  he  saw  that  he  had  no  longer  any- 
thing to  depend  upon  but  the  valor  of  his  arm.  No  time  was  to  be 
lost  in  hastening  to  counteract  the  effect  of  the  late  Christian  rav- 
age, and  in  opening  the  channel  for  distant  supplies  to  Granada. 

"Scarcely  had  the  retiring  squadrons  of  Ferdinand  disappeared 
among  the  mountains,  when  Boabdil  buckled  on  his  armor,  salUed 
forth  from  the  Alhambra,  and  prepared  to  take  the  field.  When 
the  populace  beheld  him  actually  in  arms  against  his  late  all}^, 
both  parties  thronged  with  zeal  to  his  standard.  The  hardy  in- 
habitants also  of  the  Sierra  Nevada,  or  chain  of  snow-capped 
mountains  which  rise  above  Granada,  descended  from  their 
heights,  and  hastened  into  the  city  gates,  to  proffer  their  devotion 
to  their  youthful  king.  The  great  square  of  the  Vivarambla  shone 
with  the  proud  array  of  legions  of  cavahy,  decked  with  the  colors 
and  devices  of  the  most  ancient  Moorish  families,  and  marshaled 
forth  by  the  patriot  Muza  to  follow  the  king  to  battle. 

"It  was  on  the  15th  of  June  that  Boabdil  once  more  issued  forth 
from  the  gates  of  Granada  on  martial  enterprise.  A  few  leagues 
from  the  cit}-,  within  full  view  of  it,  and  at  the  entrance  of  the 
Alpuxarra  mountains,  stood  the  powerful  castle  of  Alhendin.  It 
was  built  on  an  eminence,  rising  from  the  midst  of  a  small  town, 
and  commanding  a  great  part  of  the  vega,  and  the  main  road  to 
the  rich  valley's  of  the  Alpuxarras.     The  castle  was  commanded  by 


THE   FALL    OF   GRANADA  315 

a  valiant  Cliristian  cavalier  named  Mendo  de  Quexada,  and  gar- 
risoned by  two  hundred  and  fifty  men,  all  seasoned  and  experi- 
enced warriors.  It  was  a  continual  thorn  in  the  side  of  Granada : 
the  laborers  of  the  vega  were  swept  off  from  their  fields  by  its 
hardy  soldiers;  convoys  were  cut  off  in  the  passes  of  the  moun- 
tains; and  as  the  garrison  commanded  a  full  view  of  the  gates 
of  the  city,  no  band  of  merchants  could  venture  forth  on  their 
needful  jom-neys  without  being  swooped  up  by  the  war-hawks 
of  Alhendin. 

*'It  was  against  this  important  fortress  that  Boabdil  first  led  his 
troops.  For  six  daj'S  and  nights  the  fortress  was  closely  besieged. 
The  alcayde  and  his  veteran  garrison  defended  themselves  val- 
iantly, but  they  were  exhausted  by  fatigue  and  constant  watchful- 
ness; for  the  Moors,  being  continually  relieved  by  fresh  troops 
from  Granada,  kept  up  an  unremitted  and  Aagorous  attack. 
Twice  the  barbacan  was  forced,  and  twice  the  assailants  were 
driven  forth  headlong  with  excessive  loss.  The  garrison,  how- 
ever, was  diminished  in  number  by  the  killed  and  wounded;  there 
were  no  longer  soldiers  sufficient  to  man  the  walls  and  gateway; 
and  the  brave  alcayde  was  compelled  to  retire,  Avith  his  surviving 
force,  to  the  keep  of  the  castle,  in  which  he  continued  to  make 
desperate  resistance. 

"The  Moors  now  approached  the  foot  of  the  tower,  under  shel- 
ter of  wooden  screens  covered  with  wet  hides  to  ward  off  missiles 
and  combustibles.  They  went  to  work  vigorously  to  undermine 
the  tower,  placing  props  of  wood  under  the  foundations,  to  be  after- 
ward set  on  fire,  so  as  to  give  the  besiegers  time  to  escape  before 
the  edifice  should  fall.  Some  of  the  Moors  pHed  their  crossbows 
and  arquebuses  to  defend  the  workmen,  and  to  drive  the  Christians 
from  the  wall ;  while  the  latter  showered  down  stones,  and  darts, 
and  melted  pitch,  and  flaming  combustibles,  on  the  miners. 

"The  brave  Mendo  de  Quexada  had  cast  many  an  anxious  eye 
across  the  vega,  in  hopes  of  seeing  some  Christian  force  hastening 
to  his  assistance.  Not  a  gleam  of  spear  or  helm  was  to  be  descried, 
for  no  one  had  dreamed  of  this  sudden  irruption  of  the  Moore.  The 
alcayde  beheld  his  bravest  men  dead  or  wounded  around  him,  while 
the  remamder  were  sinking  with  watchfulness  and  fatigue.     In  de 


3i6  GREAT   BATTLES    OF    ALL    NATIONS 

fiance  of  all  opposition,  the  Moors  bad  accomplished  their  mine;  the 
fire  was  brought  before  the  walls  that  was  to  be  applied  to  the 
stanchions  in  case  the  garrison  persisted  in  defense.  In  a  httle 
while,  the  tower  would  crumble  beneath  him,  and  be  rent  and 
hurled  a  ruin  to  the  plain.  At  the  very  last  moment  the  brave 
alcayde  made  the  signal  of  surrender.  He  marched  forth  with 
the  remnant  of  his  veteran  garrison,  who  were  all  made  prisoners. 
Boabdil  immediately  ordered  the  walls  of  the  fortress  to  be  razed, 
and  fire  to  be  applied  to  the  stanchions,  that  the  place  might  never 
again  become  a  stronghold  to  the  Christians  and  a  scourge  to 
Granada.  The  alcayde  and  his  fellow-captives  were  led  in  de- 
jected convoy  across  the  vega,  when  they  heard  a  tremendous 
crash  behind  them.  They  turned  to  look  upon  their  late  fortress, 
but  beheld  nothing  but  a  heap  of  tumbling  ruins,  and  a  vast  col- 
umn of  smoke  and  dust,  where  once  had  stood  the  lofty  tower  of 
Alhendin. 

"Boabdil  el  Chico  followed  up  his  success  by  capturing  the  two 
fortresses  of  Marchena  and  Buldy;  he  sent  his  alfaquis  in  every 
direction,  to  proclaim  a  holy  war,  and  to  summon  all  true  Moslems 
of  town  or  castle,  mountain  or  valley,  to  saddle  steed  and  buckle 
on  armor,  and  hasten  to  the  standard  of  the  faith.  The  tidings 
spread  far  and  wide,  that  Boabdil  el  Chico  was  once  more  in  the 
field  and  was  victorious.  The  Moors  of  various  places,  dazzled  by 
this  gleam  of  success,  hastened  to  throw  off  their  sworn  allegiance 
to  the  Castilian  crown,  and  to  elevate  the  standard  of  Boabdil; 
and  the  youthful  monarch  flattered  himself  tha  tthe  whole  king- 
dom was  on  the  point  of  returning  to  its  allegiance. 

The  fiery  cavaliers  of  Granada  were  eager  to  renew  those  fora3-s 
into  the  Christian  lands  in  which  they  had  formerly  delighted.  A 
number  of  them  therefore  concerted  an  irruption  to  the  north,  into 
the  territory  of  Jaen,  to  harass  the  country  about  Quezada.  They 
had  heard  of  a  rich  convoy  of  merchants  and  wealthy  travelers, 
on  the  way  to  the  city  of  Baza ;  and  they  anticipated  a  glorious 
conclusion  to  their  foray,  in  capturing  this  convo5^ 

"AssembHng  a  number  of  horsemen,  lightly  armed  and  fleetly 
mounted,  and  one  hundred  foot-soldiers,  these  hardy  cavaliers 
issued  forth  b^^  night  from  Granada,  made  their  vraj  in  silence 


THE   FALL    OF   GRANADA  317 

through  the  defiles  of  the  mountains,  crossed  the  frontier  without 
opposition,  and  suddenly  appeared,  as  if  fallen  from  the  clouds,  in 
the  very  heart  of  the  Christian  country. 

"The  mountainous  frontier  which  separates  Granada  from  Jaen 
was  at  this  time  under  the  command  of  the  Count  de  Tendilla,  the 
same  veteran  who  had  distinguished  himself  by  his  vigilance  and 
sagacity  when  commanding  the  fortress  of  Alhama.  He  held  his 
headquarters  at  the  city  of  Alcala  la  Real,  in  its  impregnable  fort- 
ress, perched  high  among  the  mountains,  about  six  leagues  from 
Granada,  and  dominating  all  the  frontier.  From  this  cloud-capped 
hold  among  the  rocks  he  kept  an  eagle  eye  upon  Granada,  and  had 
his  scouts  and  spies  in  all  directions,  so  that  a  crow  could  not  fly 
over  the  border  without  his  knowledge.  His  fortress  was  a  place 
of  refuge  for  the  Christian  captives  who  escaped  by  night  from  the 
Moorish  dungeons  of  Granada.  Often,  however,  they  missed  their 
way  in  the  defiles  of  the  mountains,  and,  wandering  about  bewil- 
ilered,  either  repaired  by  mistake  to  some  Moorish  town,  or  were 
discovered  and  retaken  at  dayliglit  In'  the  enemy.  To  prevent 
these  accidents,  the  count  had  a  tower  built  at  his  own  expense, 
on  the  top  of  one  of  the  heights  near  Alcala,  wliicb  commanded  a 
view  of  the  vega  and  the  surrounding  country.  Here  he  kept 
a  light  blazing  throughout  the  night,  itS  a  beacon  for  all  Christian 
fugitives,  to  guide  them  to  a  place  of  safety. 

"The  count  Avas  aroused  one  night  from  his  repose  bj'  shouts 
and  cries,  which  came  up  from  the  town  and  approached  the  castle 
walls.  'To  arms!  to  arms!  the  Moor  is  over  the  border!'  was  the 
cry.  A  Christian  soldier,  pale  and  emaciated,  and  who  still  bore 
traces  of  the  Moorish  chains,  was  Ijrought  before  the  count.  He 
had  been  taken  as  guide  by  the  Moorish  cavaliers  who  had  sallied 
from  Granada,  but  had  escaped  from  them  among  the  mountains, 
and,  after  much  wandering,  had  found  his  way  to  Alcala  by  the 
signal-fire. 

"Notwithstanding  the  bustle  and  agitation  of  the  moment,  the 
Count  de  Tendilla  listened  calmlj-  and  attentively  to  the  account 
of  the  fugitive,  and  questioned  him  minutely  as  to  the  time  of  de- 
parture of  the  Moors,  and  the  rapidity  and  direction  of  their  march. 
He  saw  that  it  was  too  late  to  prevent  their  incursion  and  ravage; 


3l8  GREAT   BATTLES    OF  ALL    NATIONS 

but  be  determined  to  await  them,  and  give  them  a  warm  reception 
on  their  return.  His  soldiers  were  always  on  the  alert  and  ready 
to  take  the  field  at  a  moment's  warning.  Choosing  a  hundred  and 
fifty  lancers,  hardy  and  valiant  men,  Avell  disciplined  and  well  sea- 
soned, as  indeed  were  all  his  troops,  he  issued  forth  quietly  before 
break  of  day,  and,  descending  through  the  defiles  of  the  mountains, 
stationed  his  little  force  in  ambush,  in  a  deep  barranca,  or  dry- 
channel  of  a  torrent,  near  Barzina,  but  three  leagues  from  Gra- 
nada, on  the  road  by  which  the  marauders  would  have  to  return. 
In  the  meantime,  hie  sent  out  scouts  to  post  themselves  upon  differ- 
ent heights,  and  look  out  for  the  approach  of  the  enemy. 

"All  day  they  remained  concealed  in  the  ravine,  and  for  a  great 
part  of  the  following  night;  not  a  turban,  however,  was  to  be  seen, 
excepting  now  and  then  a  peasant  returning  from  his  labor,  or  a 
solitary  maleteer  hastening  toward  Granada,  The  cavaliers  of  the 
count  began  to  grow  restless  and  impatient ;  they  feared  that  the 
enemy  might  have  taken  some  other  route,  or  might  have  received 
intelligence  of  their  ambuscade.  They  urged  the  count  to  abandon 
the  enterprise  and  return  to  Alcala.  'We  are  here,'  said  they, 
'almost  at  the  gates  of  the  Moorish  capital;  our  movements  may 
have  been  descried,  and,  before  we  are  aware,  Granada  may  pour 
forth  its  legions  of  swift  cavalry,  and  crush  us  with  an  overwhelm- 
ing force. '  The  Count  de  Tendilla,  however,  persisted  in  remain- 
ing until  his  scouts  should  come  in.  About  two  hours  before  day- 
break, there  were  signal-fires  on  certain  Moorish  watch-towers  of 
the  mountains.  While  they  were  regarding  these  with  anxiety, 
the  scouts  came  hurrying  into  the  ravine:  'The  Moors  are  approach- 
ing,' said  they;  'we  have  reconnoitered  them  near  at  hand.  They 
are  between  one  and  two  hundred  strong,  but  encumbered  \vith 
many  prisoners  and  much  booty.'  The  Christian  cavaliers  laid 
+.heir  ears  to  the  ground,  and  heard  the  distant  tramp  of  horses 
^nd  the  tread  of  foot-soldiers.  They  mounted  their  horses,  braced 
their  shields,  couched  their  lances,  and  drew  near  to  the  entrance 
of  the  ravine  where  it  opened  upon  the  road. 

"The  Moors  had  succeeded  in  waylaying  and  surprising  the 
Christian  convoy  on  its  way  to  Baza.  They  had  captured  a  great 
number  of  prisoners,  male  and  female,  with  great  store  of  gold  and 


THE    FALL   OF    GRANADA  319 

jewels,  and  sumpter  mules  laden  with  rich  merchandise.  With 
these  they  had  made  a  forced  march  over  the  dangerous  jjarts  of 
the  mountains;  but  now,  finding  themselves  so  near  to  Granada, 
they  fancied  themselves  in  perfect  security.  They  loitered  along 
the  road,  therefore,  irregularly  and  slowly,  some  singing,  others 
laughing  and  exulting  at  having  eluded  the  boasted  vigilance  of 
the  Count  de  Tendilla ;  while  ever  and  anon  were  heard  the  plaint 
of  some  female  captive,  bewaihng  the  jeopardy  of  her  honor,  and 
the  heavy  sighing  of  the  merchant  at  beholding  his  property  in  the 
grasp  of  ruthless  spoilers. 

"The  Count  de  Tendilla  waited  until  some  of  the  escort  had 
passed  the  ravine;  then,  giving  the  signal  for  assault,  his  cavahers 
set  up  great  shouts  and  cries,  and  charged  furiously  into  the  center 
of  the  foe.  The  obscurity  of  the  place  and  the  hoiir  added  to  the 
terrors  of  the  surprise.  The  Moors  were  thrown  into  confusion ; 
some  raUied,  fought  desperately,  and  fell  covered  with  wounds. 
Thirty-six  were  killed  and  fifty-five  were  made  prisoners ;  the  rest, 
under  cover  of  the  darkness,  made  their  escape  to  the  rocks  and 
defiles  of  the  mountains. 

"The  good  count  unbound  the  prisoners,  gladdening  the  hearts 
of  the  merchants  by  restoring  to  them  their  merchandise.  To  the 
female  captives  also  he  restored  the  jewels  of  which  they  had  been 
despoiled,  excepting  such  as  had  been  lost  beyond  recovery.  Forty- 
five  saddle  horses,  of  the  choice  Barbary  breed,  remained  as  cap- 
tured spoils  of  the  Moors,  together  with  costly  armor  and  booty  of 
various  kinds.  Having  collected  everything  in  haste  and  arranged 
his  cavalgada,  the  count  urged  his  way  with  all  speed  for  Alcala 
la  Real,  lest  he  should  be  pursued  and  overtaken  by  the  Moors  of 
Granada.  As  he  wound  up  the  steep  ascent  to  his  mountain  city, 
the  inhabitants  poured  forth  to  meet  him  with  shouts  of  joy.  His 
triumph  was  doubly  enhanced  by  being  received  at  the  gates  of  the 
citj'  by  his  wife,  the  daughter  of  the  Marques  of  Villena,  a  lady  of 
distinguished  merit,  whom  he  had  not  seen  for  the  two  years  that 
he  had  been  separated  from  his  home  by  the  arduous  duties  of  these 
iron  wars. 

"King  Boabdil  found  that  his  diminished  territory  was  too 
closely  dominated  b}''  Christian  fortresses  like  Alcala  la  Real,  and 


320  GREAT    BATTLES    OF    ALL    NATIONS 

too  strictly  watched  by  vigilant  alcaj^des  like  the  Count  of  Tendilla, 
to  be  able  to  maintain  itself  by  internal  resources.  His  foraging 
expeditions  were  liable  to  be  intercepted  and  defeated,  while  the 
ravage  of  the  vega  had  swept  off  everything  on  which  the  city 
depended  for  future  sustenance.  He  felt  the  want  of  a  seaport, 
through  which,  as  formerly,  he  might  keep  open  a  communication 
with  Africa,  and  obtain  re-enforcements  and  supplies  from  beyond 
the  sea.  All  the  ports  and  harbors  were  in  the  hands  of  the  Chris- 
tians, and  Granada  and  its  remnant  of  dependent  territory  were 
completely  landlocked. 

"In  this  emergency,  the  attention  of  Boabdil  was  called  by  cir- 
cumstances to  the  seaport  of  Salobrena.  This  redoubtable  town 
has  already  been  mentioned  in  this  chromcle  as  a  place  deemed 
impregnable  by  the  Moors ;  insomuch  that  their  kings  were  accus- 
tomed, in  time  of  peril,  to  keep  their  treasures  in  its  citadel.  It 
was  situated  on  a  high  rocky  hill,  dividing  one  of  those  rich  little 
vegas  or  plains  which  lie  open  to  the  Mediterranean,  but  run  like 
deep  gi-een  bays  into  the  stern  bosoms  of  the  mountains.  The  vega 
was  covered  with  beautiful  vegetation,  with  rice  and  cotton,  with 
groves  of  oranges,  citrons,  figs  and  mulberries,  and  with  gardens 
inclosed  by  hedges  of  reeds,  of  aloes,  and  the  Indian  fig.  Running 
streams  of  cool  water  from  the  springs  and  snows  of  the  Sierra 
Nevada  kept  this  delightful  valley  continually  fresh  and  verdant ; 
while  it  was  almost  locked  up  by  mountain  barriers,  and  loft}' 
promontories  that  stretched  far  into  the  sea. 

"Through  the  center  of  this  rich  vega,  the  rock  of  Salobrena 
reared  its  rugged  back,  nearly  dividing  the  plain,  and  advancing 
to  the  margin  of  the  sea,  with  just  a  strip  of  sandy  beach  at  its 
foot,  laved  by  the  blue  waves  of  the  Mediterranean. 

"The  town  covered  the  ridge  and  sides  of  the  rocky  hill,  and 
was  fortified  by  strong  walls  and  towers ;  while  on  the  highest  and 
most  precipitous  part  stood  the  citadel,  a  huge  castle  that  seemed 
to  form  a  part  of  the  living  rock ;  the  massive  ruins  of  which,  at 
the  present  day,  attract  the  gaze  of  the  traveler,  as  he  winds  his 
way  far  below,  along  the  road  which  passes  through  the  vega. 

"This  important  fortress  had  been  intrusted  to  the  command  of 
Don  Francisco  Ramirez  de  Madrid,  captain-general  of  the  artillery. 


THE    FALL    OF   GRANADA  321 

and  the  most  scientific  of  all  the  Spanish  leaders.  That  experienced 
veteran,  however,  was  with  the  king  at  Cordova,  having-  left  a 
valiant  cavalier  as  alcayde  of  the  place. 

"Boabdil  el  Chico  had  full  information  of  the  state  of  the  garri- 
son and  the  absence  of  its  commander.  Putting  himself  at  the  head 
of  a  powerful  force,  therefore,  he  departed  from  Granada,  and  made 
a  rapid  march  through  the  mountains;  hoping,  Ijv  this  sudden  muvi-, 
to  seize  upon  Salobrena  before  King  Ferdinand  could  come  to  its 
assistance. 

"The  inhabitants  of  Salobrena  were  Mudexares,  or  Moors  who 
had  sworn  allegiance  to  the  Christians.  Still,  when  they  heard  the 
sound  of  the  Moorish  drums  and  trumpets,  and  beheld  the  squad- 
rons of  their  countrymen  advancing  across  the  vega,  their  hearts 
yearned  tow^ard  the  standard  of  their  nation  and  their  faith.  A 
tumult  arose  in  the  place ;  the  populace  shouted  the  name  of  Boab- 
dil el  Chico,  and,  throNN-ing  open  the  gates,  admitted  him  within 
the  walls. 

"The  Christian  garrison  was  too  few  in  number  to  contend  for 
the  possession  of  the  town :  they  retreated  to  the  citadel,  and  shut 
themselves  within  its  massive  walls,  w^hich  were  considered  im- 
l)regnable.  Here  thej'  maintained  a  desperate  defense,  hoping  to 
hold  out  until  succor  should  arrive  from  the  neighboring  fortresses. 

"The  tidings  that  Salobrena  was  invested  by  the  Moorish  king 
spread  along  the  seacoast  and  filled  the  Christians  with  alarm. 
Don  Francisco  Enriquez,  uncle  of  the  king,  commanded  the  city 
of  Velez  Malaga,  aboijt  twelve  leagues  distant,  but  separated  by 
ranges  of  those  vast  rocky  mountains  which  are  piled  along  the 
Mediterranean,  and  tower  in  steep  promontories  and  precipices 
above  its  waves. 

"Don  Francisco  summoned  the  alcaydes  of  his  distnct  to 
hasten  with  him  to  the  relief  of  this  important  fortress.  A  number 
of  cavaliers  and  their  retainers  answered  to  his  call,  among  whom 
was  Hernando  Perez  del  Pulgar,  surnamed  'El  de  las  Hazanas' 
(he  of  the  exploits) — the  same  who  had  signalized  himseK  in  a 
foray,  by  elevating  a  handkerchief  on  a  lance  for  a  banner  and 
leading  on  his  disheartened  comrades  to  victory.  As  soon  as  Don 
Francisco  beheld  a  little  band  collected  round  him,  he  set  out  with 
K— Vol.  I. 


322  GREAT    BATTLES    OF  ALL    NATIONS 

all  speed  for  Salobrena.  The  march  was  rugged  and  severe,  climb- 
ing and  descending  immense  mountains,  and  sometimes  winding 
along  the  edge  of  giddy  precipices,  with  the  surges  of  the  sea  rag- 
ing far  below,  "When  Don  Francisco  arrived  with  his  followers  at 
the  lofty  promontory  that  stretches  along  one  side  of  the  little  vega 
of  Salobrena,  he  looked  down  with  sorrow  and  anxiety  upon  a 
Moorish  army  of  great  force  encamped  at  the  foot  of  the  fortress, 
while  Moorish  banners,  on  various  parts  of  the  walls,  showed  that 
the  town  was  already  in  possession  of  the  Infidels.  A  solitary 
Christian  standard  alone  floated  on  the  top  of  the  castle-keep, 
showing  that  the  brave  garrison  were  hemmed  up  in  their  rock- 
built  citadel. 

"Don  Francisco  found  it  impossible,  with  his  small  force,  to 
make  any  impression  on  the  camp  of  the  Moors,  or  to  get  to  the 
relief  of  the  castle.  He  stationed  his  httle  band  upon  a  rocky 
height  near  the  sea,  where  they  were  safe  from  the  assaults  of  the 
enemy.  The  sight  of  his  friendly  banner  waving  in  their  neigh- 
borhood cheered  the  heart  of  the  garrison,  and  conveyed  to  them 
assurance  of  speedy  succor  from  the  king. 

"In  the  meantime,  Hernando  Perez  del  Pulgar,  who  always 
burned  to  distinguish  himself  by  bold  and  striking  exploits,  in  the 
course  of  a  prowling  expedition  along  the  borders  of  the  Moorish 
camp,  remarked  a  postern-gate  of  the  castle,  opening  upon  the 
steep  part  of  the  rocky  hiU  which  looked  toward  the  mountains. 

"A  sudden  thought  flashed  upon  the  daring  mind  of  Pulgar: 
'Who  wiU  follow  my  banner,'  said  he,  'and  make  a  dash  for  yon- 
der postern?'  A  bold  proposition,  in  time  of  warfare,  never  wants 
for  bold  spirits  to  accept  it.  Seventy  resolute  men  immediately 
stepped  forward.  Pulgar  put  himself  at  their  head;  they  cut  their 
way  suddenly  through  a  weak  part  of  the  camp,  fought  their  way 
up  to  the  gate,  which  was  eagerly  thrown  open  to  receive  them; 
and  succeeded  in  making  their  way  into  the  fortress,  before  the 
alarm  of  their  attempt  had  spread  through  the  Moorish  army. 

"The  garrison  was  roused  to  new  spirit  by  this  unlooked-for 
re-enforcement,  and  were  enabled  to  make  a  more  vigorous  resist- 
ance. The  Moors  had  intelligence,  however,  that  there  was  a 
great  scarcity  of  water  in  the  castle;  and  they  exulted  in  the  idea 


THE    FALL    OF    GRANADA  323 

that  this  additional  number  of  warriors  would  soon  exhaust  the 
easterns  and  compel  them  to  surrender.  When  Pulgar  heard  of 
this  hope  entertained  by  the  enemy,  he  caused  a  bucket  of  water 
to  be  lowered  from  the  battlements  and  threw  a  silver  cup  in 
bravado  to  the  Moors. 

"The  situation  of  the  garrison,  however,  was  daily  growing 
more  and  more  critical;  they  suffered  greatly  from  thirst,  while, 
to  tantalize  them  in  their  sufferings,  they  beheld  limpid  streams 
winding  in  abundance  through  the  green  plain  below  them.  They 
began  to  fear  that  all  succor  would  arrive  too  late,  when  one  day 
they  beheld  a  Httle  squadron  of  vessels  far  at  sea,  but  standing 
toward  the  shore.  There  was  some  doubt  at  first  whether  it  might 
not  be  a  hostile  armament  from  Africa ;  but  as  it  approached  they 
descried,  to  their  great  joy,  the  banner  of  Castile. 

"It  was  a  re-enforcement,  brought  in  all  haste  by  the  governor 
of  the  fortress,  Don  Francisco  Ramirez.  The  squadron  anchored 
at  a  steep  rocky  island,  which  rises  from  the  very  margin  of  the 
smooth  sandy  beach,  directly  in  front  of  the  rock  of  Salobrena,  and 
stretches  out  into  the  sea.  On  this  island  Ramirez  landed  his  men, 
and  was  as  strongly  posted  as  if  in  a  fortress.  His  force  was  too 
scanty  to  attempt  a  battle,  but  he  assisted  to  harass  and  distract 
the  besiegers.  Whenever  King  Boabdil  made  an  attack  upon  the 
fortress,  his  camp  was  assailed  on  one  side  by  the  troops  of  Ramirez, 
who  landed  from  their  island,  and  on  another  by  those  of  Don 
Francisco  Enrique,  who  swept  down  from  their  rock,  while  Her- 
nando del  Pulgar  kept  up  a  fierce  defense  from  every  tower  and 
battlement  of  the  castle. 

"The  attention  of  the  Moorish  king  was  diverted  also,  for  a 
time,  by  an  ineffectual  attempt  to  relieve  the  little  port  of  Adra, 
which  had  recently  declared  in  his  favor,  but  which  had  been  re- 
captured for  the  Christians  by  Cidi  Yahye  and  his  son  Alnayar. 
Thus  the  unlucky  Boabdil,  bewildered  on  every  hand,  lost  all  the 
advantage  that  he  had  gained  by  his  rapid  march  from  Granada. 
While  he  was  yet  besieging  the  obstinate  citadel,  tidings  were 
bvought  him  that  King  Ferdinand  was  in  full  march,  with  a 
powerful  host,  to  its  assistance.  There  was  no  time  for  further 
delay:  he  made  a  furious  attack  with  all  his  forces  upon  the  castle, 


324  GREAT   BATTLES    OF    ALL   NATIONS 

but  was  again  repulsed  b}^  Pulgar  and  his  coadjutors ;  when,  aban- 
doning the  siege  in  despair,  he  retreated  with  his  army,  lest  King- 
Ferdinand  should  get  between  him  and  his  capital.  On  his  way 
back  to  Granada,  however,  he  in  some  sort  consoled  himself  for 
his  late  disappointment,  by  overruning  a  part  of  the  territories  and 
possessions  lately  assigned  to  his  uncle  El  Zagal  and  to  Cidi  Yahye. 
He  defeated  their  alcaydes,  destroyed  several  of  their  fortresses, 
burned  their  villages,  and,  leaving  the  country  behind  him  reeking 
and  smoking  with  his  vengeance,  returned  with  considerable  booty, 
to  repose  himself  within  the  walls  of  the  Alhambra. 

"Scarcely  had  Boabdil  ensconced  himself  in  his  capital,  when 
King  Ferdinand,  at  the  head  of  seven  thousand  horse  and  i-Wenty 
thousand  foot,  again  appeared  in  the  vega.  He  had  set  out  in  all 
haste  from  Cordova  to  the  relief  of  Saiobrena;  but,  hearing  on  his 
march  that  the  siege  was  raised,  he  turned  with  his  army  to  make 
a  second  ravage  round  the  walls  of  devoted  Granada.  His  present 
forage  lasted  fifteen  days,  in  the  course  of  which  everything  that 
had  escaped  his  former  desolating  visit  was  destroyed,  and  scarce 
a  green  thing  or  a  living  animal  was  left  on  the  face  of  the  land. 
The  Moors  sallied  frequently  and  fought  desperately,  in  defense  of 
their  fields,  but  the  work  of  destruction  was  accompHshed — and 
Granada,  once  the  queen  of  gardens,  was  left  surrounded  by  a 
desert. 

"From  hence  Ferdinand  marched  to  crush  a  conspu-acy  which 
had  lately  manifested  itself  in  the  cities  of  Guadix,  Baza  and 
Almeria,  These  recently  conquered  places  had  entered  into  secret 
correspondence  with  King  Boabdil,  inviting  him  to  march  to  their 
gates,  promising  to  rise  upon  the  Christian  garrisons,  seize  upon 
the  citadels,  and  surrender  themselves  into  his  power.  The  Mar- 
ques of  Villena  had  received  notice  of  the  conspiracy,  and  had 
suddenly  thrown  himself,  with  a  large  force,  into  Guadix.  Under 
pretense  of  making  a  review  of  the  inhabitants,  he  made  them 
sally  forth  into  the  fields  before  the  city.  "When  the  whole  Moor- 
ish population  capable  of  bearing  arms  was  thus  without  the  walls, 
he  ordered  the  gates  to  be  closed.  He  then  permitted  them  to 
enter,  two  by  two  and  three  by  three,  and  to  take  forth  their 
wives,   children   and   effects.     The  houseless   Moors  were  fain  to 


THE    FALL    OF    GRANADA  325 

make  themselves  temporaiy  hovels,  in  the  gardens  and  orchards 
about  the  city;  they  were  clamorous  in  their  complaints  at  being 
thus  excluded  from  their  homes,  but  were  told  they  must  wait  with 
patience  until  the  charges  against  them  could  be  investigated,  and 
the  pleasure  of  the  king  be  known. 

"When  Ferdinand  arrived  at  Guadix,  he  found  the  unhappy 
Moors  in  their  cabins  among  the  orchards.  They  complained  bit- 
terly of  the  deception  that  had  been  practiced  upon  them,  and 
implored  permission  to  return  into  the  city,  and  live  peaceably  in 
their  dwellings,  as  had  been  promised  them  in  their  articles  of 
capitulation. 

"King  Ferdinand  listened  graciously  to  their  complaints:  'My 
friends,'  said  he  in  reply,  'I  am  informed  that  there  has  been  a 
conspiracy  among  you  to  kill  my  alcayde  and  garrison,  and  to  take 
part  Avitli  my  enemy  the  king  of  Granada.  I  shall  make  a  thor- 
ough investigation  of  this  conspiracy.  Those  among  you  who  shall 
be  proved  innocent  shall  be  restored  to  their  dwellings,  but  the 
guilty  shall  incur  the  penalty  of  their  offenses.  As  I  wnsh,  how- 
ever, to  proceed  with  mercy  as  well  as  justice,  I  now  give  you  your 
choice,  either  to  depart  at  once  without  further  question,  going 
wherever  you  please,  and  taking  with  you  your  families  and  effects, 
under  an  assurance  of  safety;  or  to  deliver  up  those  who  are 
guilty,  not  one  of  whom,  I  give  3'ou  my  royal  word,  shall  escape 
punishment.' 

"When  the  people  of  Guadix  heard  these  words,  they  com- 
muned among  themselves ;  and  as  most  of  them  (says  the  worthy 
Agapida)  were  either  culpable  or  feared  to  be  considered  so,  they 
accepted  the  alternative,  and  departed  sorrowfully,  they  and  their 
wives  and  their  little  ones.  'Thus,'  in  the  words  of  that  excellent 
and  contemporary  historian,  Andres  Bernaldez,  commonly  called 
the  curate  of  Los  Palacios — 'thus  did  the  king  deliver  Guadix  from 
the  hands  of  the  enemies  of  our  holy  faith,  after  seven  hundred 
and  seventy  j'ears  that  it  had  been  in  their  possession,  ever  since 
the  time  of  Roderick  the  Goth ;  and  this  was  one  of  the  mysteries 
of  our  Lord,  who  would  not  consent  that  the  city  should  remain 
longer  in  the  power  of  the  Moors' :  a  pious  and  sage  remark,  which 
is  quoted  with  peculiar  approbation  by  the  worthy  Agapida. 


326  GREAT   BATTLES    OF   ALL   NATIONS 

"King  Ferdinand  offered  similar  alternatives  to  the  Moors  of 
Baza,  Almeria,  and  other  cities  accused  of  participation  in  this  con- 
spiracy; who  generally  preferred  to  abandon  their  homes  rather 
than  incur  the  risk  of  an  investigation.  Most  of  them  relinquished 
Spain,  as  a  country  where  they  could  no  longer  hve  in  security  and 
independence,  and  departed  with  their  families  for  Africa ;  such  as 
remained  were  suffered  to  live  in  villages  and  hamlets,  and  other 
unwalled  places. 

"While  Ferainand  was  thus  occupied  at  Guadix,  dispensing 
justice  and  mercy,  and  receiving  cities  in  exchange,  the  old  mon- 
arch Muley  Abdalla,  surnamed  El  Zagal,  appeared  before  him. 
He  was  haggard  with  care  and  almost  crazed  with  passion.  He 
had  found  his  little  territory  of  Andarax,  and  his  two  thousand 
subjects,  as  difficult  to  govern  as  had  been  the  distracted  kingdom 
of  Granada.  The  charm  which  had  bound  the  Moors  to  him  was 
broken  when  he  appeared  in  arms  under  the  banner  of  Ferdinand. 
He  had  returned  from  his  inglorious  campaign  with  his  petty  army 
of  two  hundred  men,  followed  by  the  execrations  of  the  people  of 
Granada,  and  the  secret  repining  of  those  he  had  led  into  the  field. 
No  sooner  had  liis  subjects  heard  of  the  successes  of  Boabdil  el 
Chico  than  they  had  seized  their  arms,  assembled  tumultuously, 
declared  for  the  young  monarch,  and  threatened  the  life  of  El 
Zagal.  The  unfortunate  old  king  had  with  difficulty  evaded  their 
fury ;  and  this  last  lesson  seemed  entirely  to  have  cured  him  of  his 
passion  for  sovereignty.  He  now  entreated  Ferdinand  to  purchase 
the  towns  and  castles  and  other  possessions  which  had  been  granted 
to  him ;  offering  them  at  a  low  rate,  and  begging  safe  passage  for 
himself  and  his  followers  to  Africa.  King  Ferdinand  graciously 
complied  with  his  wishes.  He  purchased  of  him  three-and-twenty 
towns  and  villages  in  the  valleys  of  Andarax  and  Alhaurin,  for 
which  he  gave  him  five  millions  of  maravedies.  El  Zagal  relin- 
quished his  right  to  one-half  of  the  salinas  or  salt-pits  of  Maleha, 
in  favor  of  his  brother  in-law  Cidi  Yahye.  Having  thus  disposed 
of  his  petty  empire  and  possessions,  he  packed  up  all  his  treasure, 
oi  which  he  had  a  great  amount,  and,  followed  by  many  Moorish 
families,  passed  over  to  Africa. 

"And  here  let  us  cast  an  e^'o  beyond  the  present  period  of  our 


THE   FALL   OF   GRANADA  327 

chronicle,  and  trace  the  remainnig  career  of  El  ZagaL  His  short 
and  turbulent  reign,  and  disastrous  end,  would  afford  a  wholesome 
lesson  to  unprincipled  ambition,  were  not  all  ambition  of  the  kind 
fated  to  be  blind  to  precept  and  example.  AVhen  he  arrived  in 
Africa,  instead  of  meeting  with  kindness  and  sympathy,  he  was 
seized  and  thrown  into  prison  by  the  king  of  Fez,  as  though  he 
had  been  his  vassal.  He  was  accused  of  being  the  cause  of  the 
dissensions  and  downfall  of  the  kingdom  of  Granada;  and  the  ac- 
cusation being  proved  to  the  satisfaction  of  the  king  of  Fez,  he 
condemned  the  unhappy  El  Zagal  to  perpetual  darkness.  A  basin 
of  glowing  copper  was  passed  before  his  eyes,  which  effectually 
destroyed  his  sight.  His  wealth,  which  had  probably  been  the 
secret  cause  of  these  cruel  measures,  was  confiscated  and  seized 
upon  by  his  oppressor,  and  El  Zagal  was  thrust  forth,  blind,  help- 
less and  destitute,  upon  the  world.  In  this  wretched  condition,  the 
late  Moorish  monarch  groped  his  way  through  the  regions  of  Tingi- 
tania,  until  he  reached  the  city  of  Velez  de  Gomera.  The  king  of 
V-^elez  had  formerly  been  his  ally,  and  felt  some  movement  of  com- 
passion at  his  present  altered  and  abject  state.  He  gave  him  food 
and  raiment,  and  suffered  him  to  remain  unmolested  in  his  domin- 
ions. Death,  which  so  often  hurries  off  the  prosperous  and  happj' 
from  the  midst  of  untasted  pleasures,  spares  on  the  other  hand  the 
miserable,  to  drain  the  last  drop  of  his  cup  of  bitterness.  El  Zagal 
dragged  out  a  wretched  existence  of  many  years  in  the  city  of 
Velez.  He  wandered  about  blind  and  disconsolate,  an  object  of 
mingled  scorn  and  pity,  and  bearing  above  his  raiment  a  parch- 
ment on  which  was  written  in  Arabic,  'This  is  the  unfortunate 
king  of  Andalusia. ' 

"How  is  thy  strength  departed,  oh  Granada!  how  is  thy  beauty 
withered  and  despoiled,  oh  city  of  groves  and  fountains !  The  com- 
merce that  once  thronged  thy  streets  is  at  an  end ;  the  merchant  no 
longer  hastens  to  thy  gates  with  the  luxuries  of  foreign  lands.  The 
cities  which  once  paid  thee  tribute  are  %vrested  from  thy  sway ;  the 
chivalry  which  filled  the  Vivarambla  with  the  sumptuous  pageantry 
of  war  have  fallen  in  many  battles.  The  Alhambra  still  rears  its 
ruddy  towers  from  the  midst  of  groves,  but  melancholy  reigns  in 
its  marble  halls ;   and  the  monarch  looks  down  from  his  lofty  bal 


328  GREAT    BATTLES    OF    ALL    NATIONS 

conies  upon  a  naked  waste,  where  once  had  extended  the  blooming 
glories  of  the  vega ! 

"Such  is  the  lament  of  the  Moorish  writers,  over  the  lamentable 
state  of  Granada,  which  now  remained  a  mere  phantom  of  its  for- 
mer greatness.  The  two  ravages  of  the  vega,  following  so  closely 
upon  each  other,  had  swept  off  all  the  produce  of  the  year ;  and  the 
husbandman  had  no  longer  the  heart  to  till  the  field,  seeing  that 
the  ripening  harvest  only  brought  the  spoiler  to  the  door. 

"During  the  winter  season.  King  Ferdinand  made  diligent  prep- 
arations for  the  last  campaign  that  was  to  decide  the  fate  of  Gra- 
nada. As  this  war  was  waged  purely  for  the  promotion  of  the 
Christian  faith,  he  thought  it  meet  that  its  enemies  should  bear 
the  expenses.  He  levied,  therefore,  a  general  contribution  upon 
all  the  Jews  throughout  his  kingdom,  by  synagogues  and  districts ; 
and  obliged  them  to  render  in  the  proceeds  at  the  city  of  Seville. 

"On  the  11th  of  April,  Ferdinand  and  Isabella  departed  for  the 
Moorish  frontier,  with  the  solemn  determination  to  lay  close  siege 
to  Granada,  and  never  to  quit  its  walls  until  they  had  planted  the 
standard  of  the  faith  on  the  towers  of  the  Alhambra.  Many  of 
the  nobles  of  the  kingdom,  particularly  those  from  the  parts  remote 
from  the  scene  of  action,  wearied  by  the  toils  of  war,  and  foresee- 
ing that  this  would  be  a  tedious  siege,  requiring  patience  and  vigi- 
lance rather  than  hardy  deeds  of  arms,  contented  themselves  with 
sending  their  vassals,  while  they  stayed  at  home,  to  attend  to  their 
domains.  Many  cities  furnished  soldiers  at  their  cost,  and  the  king- 
took  the  field  with  an  army  of  forty  thousand  infantry  and  ten 
thousand  horse.  The  principal  captains  who  followed  the  long  in 
this  campaign  were  Roderigo  Ponce  de  Leon,  the  Marques  of 
Cadiz,  the  Master  of  Santiago,  the  Marques  of  Villena;  the  counts 
of  Tendilla,  Cifuentes,  Cabra,  and  Urena;  and  Don  Alonzo  de 
Aguilar. 

"Queen  Isabella,  accompanied  by  her  son  the  Prince  Juan,  and 
by  the  Princesses  Juana,  Maria,  and  Cathalina,  her  daughters, 
proceeded  to  Alcala  la  Real,  the  mountain  fortress  and  stronghold 
of  the  Count  de  Tendilla.  Here  she  remained,  to  forward  supplies 
to  the  army,  and  to  be  ready  to  repair  to  the  camp,  whenever  her 
presence  might  be  required. 


THE    FALL    OF    GRANADA  329 

"The  army  of  Ferdinand  poured  into  the  vega  by  various  defiles 
of  the  mountains;  and,  on  the  23d  of  April,  the  royal  tent  was 
pitched  at  a  village  called  Los  Ojos  de  Huescar,  about  a  league 
and  a  half  from  Granada.  At  the  approach  of  this  formidable 
force,  the  harassed  inhabitants  turned  pale,  and  even  many  of  the 
warriors  trembled;  for  they  felt  that  the  last  desperate  struggle 
was  at  hand. 

"Boabdil  el  Chico  assembled  his  council  in  the  Alhambra,  from 
the  ^^indows  of  which  they  could  behold  the  Christian  squadrons 
glistening  through  clouds  of  dust,  as  they  poured  along  the  vega. 
The  utmost  confusion  and  consternation  reigned  in  the  council. 
Many  of  the  members,  terrified  with  the  horrors  impending  over 
their  families,  advised  Boabdil  to  throw  himself  upon  the  generos- 
ity of  the  Christian  monarch :  even  several  of  the  bravest  suggested 
the  possibility  of  obtaining  honorable  terms. 

"The  wazir  of  the  city,  Abul  Cazim  Abdel  Melic,  was  called 
upon  to  report  the  state  of  the  public  means  for  sustenance  and 
defense.  There  were  sufficient  provisions,  he  said,  for  a  few 
months'  supply,  independent  of  what  might  exist  in  the  posses- 
sion of  merchants  and  other  rich  inhabitants.  'But  of  what  avail,' 
said  he,  'is  a  supply  for  a  few  months,  against  the  sieges  of  the 
Castilian  monarch,  which  are  interminable?' 

"He  produced,  also,  the  lists  of  men  capable  of  bearing  arms. 
'The  number,'  said  he,  'is  great;  but  what  can  be  expected  from 
mere  citizen  soldiers?  They  vaunt  and  menace,  in  time  of  safety ; 
none  are  so  arrogant,  when  the  enemy  is  at  a  distance — but  when 
the  din  of  war  thunders  at  their  gates,  they  hide  themselves  in 
terror. ' 

"When  Muza  heard  these  words,  he  rose  with  generous  warmth : 
'What  reason  have  we,'  said  he,  'to  despair?  The  blood  of  those 
illustrious  Moors,  the  conquerors  of  Spain,  still  flows  in  our  veins. 
Let  us  be  true  to  ourselves,  and  fortune  will  again  be  with  us.  We 
have  a  veteran  force,  both  horse  and  foot,  the  flower  of  our  chiv- 
alry, seasoned  in  war  and  scarred  in  a  thousand  battles.  As  to  the 
multitude  of  oiu*  citizens,  spoken  of  so  slightly,  why  should  we  doubt 
their  valor?  There  are  twenty  thousand  j^oung  men,  in  the  fire  of 
youth,  for  whom  I  will  engage,  that  in  the  defense  of  their  homes 


330  GREAT   BATTLES   OF   ALL   NATIONS 

they  will  rival  the  most  valiant  veterans.  Do  we  want  provisions? 
Our  horses  are  fleet,  and  our  horsemen  daring  in  the  foray.  Let 
them  scour  and  scourge  the  country  of  those  apostate  Moslems  who 
have  surrendered  to  the  Christians.  Let  them  make  inroads  into 
the  lands  of  our  enemies.  We  shall  soon  see  them  returning  with 
cavalgadas  to  our  gates;  and,  to  a  soldier,  there  is  no  morsel  so 
sweet  as  that  wrested  with  hard  fighting  from  the  foe.' 

"Boabdil  el  Chico,  though  he  wanted  firm  and  durable  courage, 
was  readily  excited  to  sudden  emotions  of  bravery.  He  caught  a 
glow  of  resolution  from  the  noble  ardor  of  Muza.  'Do  what  is 
needful,'  said  he  to  his  commanders;  'into  your  hands  I  confide 
the  common  safety.  You  are  the  protectors  of  the  kingdom,  and, 
with  the  aid  of  Allah,  will  revenge  the  insults  of  our  religion,  the 
deaths  of  our  friends  and  relations,  and  the  sorrows  and  sufferings 
heaped  upon  our  land.' 

"To  every  one  was  now  assigned  his  separate  duty.  The  wazir 
had  charge  of  the  arms  and  provisions,  and  the  enrolling  of  the 
people.  Muza  was  to  command  the  cavalry,  to  defend  the  gates, 
and  to  take  the  lead  in  all  sallies  and  skirmishings.  Nairn  Reduan 
and  Muhamed  Aben  Zayde  were  his  adjutants.  Abdel  Kerim 
Zegri,  and  the  other  captains,  were  to  guard  the  walls;  and  the 
alcaydes  of  the  Alcazaba,  and  of  the  Red  Towers,  had  command 
of  the  fortresses. 

"Nothing  now  was  heard  but  the  din  of  arms  and  the  bustle 
of  preparation.  The  Moorish  spirit,  quick  to  catch  fire,  was  im- 
mediately in  a  flame ;  and  the  populace,  in  the  excitement  of  the 
moment,  set  at  naught  the  power  of  the  Christians.  Muza  was 
in  all  parts  of  the  city,  infusing  his  own  generous  zeal  into  the 
bosoms  of  the  soldiery.  The  young  cavaliers  rallied  round  him  as 
their  model ;  the  veteran  warriors  regarded  him  \%-ith  a  soldier's 
admiration ;  the  vulgar  throng  followed  him  with  shouts,  and  the 
helpless  part  of  the  inhabitants,  the  old  men  and  the  women,  hailed 
him  with  blessings  as  their  protector. 

"On  the  first  appearance  of  the  Christian  army,  the  principal 
gates  of  the  city  had  been  closed,  and  secured  with  bars  and  bolts 
and  heavy  chains :  Muza  now  ordered  them  to  be  thrown  open : 
'To  me  and  my  cavaliers,'  said  he,  'is  intrusted  the  defense  of  the 


THE    FALL    OF    GRANADA  331 

gates:  t)ur  bodies  shall  be  their  barriers.'  He  stationed  at  each 
gate  a  strong  guard,  chosen  from  his  bravest  men.  His  horsemen 
were  always  completely  arrne^,  and  ready  to  mount  at  a  moment's 
warning:  their  steeds  stood  saddled  and  caparisoned  in  ithe  stables, 
with  lance  and  buckler  beside  them.  On  the  least  approach  of  the 
enemy,  a  stjuadron  of  horse  gathered  within  the  gate,  ready  to 
lanch  forth  like  the  bolt  from  the  thundercloud.  Muza  made  no 
empty  bravado  nor  liaughty  threat;  he  was  more  terrible  in  deeds 
than  in  words,  and  executed  daring  exploits,  beyond  even  the 
vaunt  of  the  vainglorious.  Such  was  the  present  champion  of 
the  Moors.  Had  the}-  possessed  many  such  warriors,  or  had  Muza 
risen  to  power  at  an  earlier  period  of  the  war,  the  fate  of  Granada 
might  have  been  deferred,  and  the  Moor  for  a  long  time  have 
maintained  his  throne  within  the  walls  of  the  Alhambra. 

"Though  Granada  was  shorn  of  its  glories,  and  nearly  cut  off 
from  all  external  aid,  still  its  mighty  castles  and  massive  bulwarks 
seemed  to  set  all  attack  at  defiance.  Being  the  last  retreat  of 
Moorish  power,  it  had  assembled  within  its  walls  the  remnants 
of  the  armies  that  had  contended,  step  by  step,  with  the  invad- 
ers in  their  gradual  conquest  of  the  land.  All  that  remained  of 
high-born  and  high-bred  chivalry  was  here;  all  that  was  loyal 
and  patriotic  was  roused  to  activity  by  the  common  danger;  and 
Granada,  that  had  so  long  been  lulled  into  inaction  by  vain  hopes 
of  security,  now  assumed  a  formidable  aspect  in  the  hour  of  its 
despair. 

"Ferdinand  saw  that  any  attempt  to  subdue  the  city  by  main 
force  would  be  perilous  and  blood3\  Cautious  in  his  policy,  and 
fond  of  conquests  gained  by  art  rather  than  valor,  he  resorted  to 
the  plan  which  had  been  so  successful  with  Baza,  and  determined 
to  reduce  the  place  by  famine.  For  this  purpose,  his  armies  pene- 
trated into  the  very  heart  of  the  Alpuxarras,  and  ravaged  the 
valleys,  and  sacked  and  burned  the  towns,  upon  which  the  city 
depended  for  its  supplies.  Scouting  parties,  also,  ranged  the 
mountains  behind  Granada,  and  captured  every  casual  convoy 
of  provisions.  The  Moors  became  more  daring  as  their  situation 
became  more  hopeless.  Never  had  Ferdinand  experienced  such 
vigorous  sallies  and  assaults.     Muza,  at  the  head  of  his  cavalry, 


332  GREAT    BATTLES    OF    ALL    NATIONS 

harassed  the  borders  of  the  camp,  and  even  penetrated  into  the 
interior,  making  sudden  spoil  and  ravage,  and  leaying  his  course 
to  be  traced  by  the  slain  and  wounded.  To  protect  his  camp  from 
these  assaults,  Ferdinand  fortified  it  with  deep  trenches  and  strong 
bulwarks.  It  was  of  a  quadrangular  form,  divided  into  streets  like 
a  city,  the  troops  being  quartered  in  tents  and  in  booths  constructed 
of  bushes  and  branches  of  trees.  When  it  was  completed,  Queen 
Isabella  came  in  state,  ^^^th  all  her  court,  and  the  prince  and 
princesses,  to  be  present  at  the  siege.  This  was  intended,  as  on 
former  occasions,  to  reduce  the  besieged  to  despair,  by  showing 
the  determination  of  the  sovereigns  to  reside  in  the  camp  until  the 
city  should  surrender.  Immediatelj^  after  her  arrival,  the  queen 
rode  forth  to  survey  the  camp  and  its  environs :  wherever  she  went, 
she  was  attended  by  a  splendid  retinue ;  and  all  the  commanders 
vied  with  each  other  in  the  pomp  and  ceremony  with  which  they 
received  her.  Nothing  was  heard,  from  morning  until  night,  but 
shouts  and  acclamations,  and  bursts  of  martial  music ;  so  that  it 
appeared  to  the  Moors  as  if  a  continual  festival  and  triumph  reigned 
in  the  Christian  camp. 

"The  arrival  of  the  queen,  however,  and  the  menaced  obstinacy 
of  the  siege,  had  no  effect  in  damping  the  fire  of  the  Moorish  chiv- 
alry. Muza  inspired  the  youthful  warriors  with  the  most  devoted 
heroism:  'We  have  nothing  left  to  fight  for,'  said  he,  'but  the 
ground  we  stand  on ;  when  this  is  lost  we  cease  to  have  a  country 
and  a  name. ' 

"Finding  the  Christian  king  forbore  to  make  an  attack,  Muza 
incited  his  cavahers  to  challenge  the  youthful  chivalry  of  the 
Christian  army  to  single  combat,  or  partial  skirmishes.  Scarce 
a  day  passed  without  gallant  conflicts  of  the  kind  in  sight  of  the 
city  and  the  camp.  The  combatants  rivaled  each  other  in  the 
splendor  of  their  armor  and  array,  as  well  as  in  the  prowess  of 
their  deeds.  Their  contests  were  more  like  the  stately  ceremonials 
of  tilts  and  tournaments  than  the  rude  conflicts  of  the  field.  Ferdi- 
nand soon  perceived  that  thej"  animated  the  fiery  Moors  with,  fresh 
zeal  and  courage,  while  they  cost  the  lives  of  many  of  his  bravest 
cavahers;  he  again,  therefore,  forbade  the  acceptance  of  any  in- 
dividual challenges,  and  (ordered  that  all  partial  encounters  should 


THE   HALL    OF   GRANADA  333 

be  avoided.  The  cool  and  stern  policy  of  the  Catholic  sovereign 
bore  hard  upon  the  generous  spirits  of  either  army,  but  roused 
the  indignation  of  the  Moors  when  they  found  that  they  were  to 
be  subdued  in  this  inglorious  manner:  'Of  what  avail,'  said  they, 
'are  chivalry  and  heroic  valor?  the  crafty  monarch  of  the  Chris- 
tians has  no  magnanimity  in  warfare;  he  seeks  to  subdue  us 
through  the  weakness  of  our  bodies,  but  shuns  to  encounter  the 
courage  of  our  souls.' 

"When  the  Moorish  knights  beheld  that  all  courteous  challenges 
were  unavailing,  they  sought  various  means  to  provoke  the  Chris- 
tian warriors  to  the  field.  Sometimes  a  body  of  them,  fleetly 
mounted,  would  gallop  up  to  the  skirts  of  the  camp,  and  try  who 
should  hurl  his  lance  furthest  within  the  barriers,  having  his  name 
inscribed  upon  it,  or  a  label  affixed  to  it,  containing  some  taunting 
defiance.  These  bravadoes  caused  great  irritation,  but  still  the 
Spanish  warriors  were  restrained  by  the  prohibition  of  the  king. 

"Among  the  Moorish  cavaliers  was  one  named  Yarfe,  renowned 
for  his  great  strength  and  daring  spirit;  but  whose  courage  partook 
of  fierce  audacity  rather  than  chivalric  heroism.  In  one  of  these 
sallies,  when  they  were  skirting  the  Christian  camp,  this  arrogant 
Moor  outstripped  his  companions,  overleaped  the  barriers,  and, 
galloping  close  to  the  royal  quarters,  lanched  his  lance  so  far 
within  that  it  remained  quivering  in  the  earth  close  by  the  pavil- 
ions of  the  sovereigns.  The  royal  guards  rushed  forth  in  pursuit, 
but  the  Moorish  horsemen  were  already  beyond  the  camp,  and 
scouring  in  a  cloud  of  dust  for  the  city.  Upon  wresting  the  lance 
from  the  earth,  a  label  was  found  upon  it,  importing  that  it  was 
intended  for  the  queen. 

"Nothing  could  equal  the  indignation  of  the  Christian  warriors, 
at  the  insolence  of  the  bravado  and  the  discourteous  insult  offered 
to  the  queen.  Hernando  Perez  del  Pulgar,  surnamed  'he  of  the 
exploits,'  was  present,  and  resolved  not  to  be  outbraved  by  this 
daring  Infidel:  'Who  will  stand  by  me,'  said  he,  'in  an  enterprise 
of  desperate  peril?'  The  Christian  cavaliers  well  knew  the  hare- 
brained valor  of  Hernando  del  Pulgar,  yet  not  one  hesitated  to  step 
forward.  He  chose  fifteen  companions,  all  men  of  powerful  arm 
and  dauntless  heart.      In  the  dead  of  the  night,  he  led  them  forth 


334  GREAT    BATTLES    OF    ALL    NATIONS 

from  the  camp,  and  approached  the  city  cautiously,  until  he  arrived 
at  a  postern-gate  which  opened  upon  the  Darro  and  was  guarded 
by  foot-soldiers.  The  guards,  little  thinking  of  such  an  unwonted 
and  partial  attack,  were  for  the  most  part  asleep.  The  gate  was 
forced,  and  a  confused  and  chance-medlej'"  skirmish  ensued,  Her- 
nando del  Pulgar  stopped  not  to  take  part  in  the  affray;  putting 
spurs  to  his  horse,  he  galloped  furiously  through  the  streets,  strik- 
ing fire  out  of  the  stones  at  every  bound.  Arrived  at  the  principal 
mosque,  he  sprang  from  his  horse,  and,  kneeling  at  the  portal,  took 
possession  of  the  edifice  as  a  Christian  chapel,  dedicating  it  to  the 
blessed  Virgin.  In  testimonial  of  the  ceremony,  he  took  a  tablet 
which  he  had  brought  with  him,  on  which  was  inscribed  in  large 
characters,  'Ave  Maria,'  and  nailed  it  to  the  door  of  the  mosque 
with  his  dagger.  This  done,  he  remounted  his  steed  and  galloped 
back  to  the  gate.  The  alarm  had  been  given — the  city  was  in  an 
uproar — soldiers  were  gathering  from  every  direction.  They  were 
astonished  at  seeing  a  Christian  warrior  galloping  from  the  interior 
of  the  city.  Hernando  del  Pulgar  overturned  some,  cut  down 
others,  rejoined  his  companions,  who  still  maintained  possession 
of  the  gate  by  dint  of  hard  fighting,  and  all  made  good  their  re- 
treat to  the  camp.  The  Moors  were  at  a  loss  to  imagine  the  mean- 
ing of  this  wild  and  apparently  fruitless  assault;  but  great  was 
their  exasperation,  on  the  following  day,  when  the  trophy  of  hardi- 
hood and  prowess,  the  'Ave  Maria,'  was  discovered  thus  elevated 
in  bravado  in  the  very  center  of  the  city.  The  mosque  thus  boldly 
sanctified  by  Hernando  del  Pulgar  was  actually  consecrated  into 
a  cathedral  after  the  capture  of  Granada. 

"The  royal  encampment  lay  at  such  a  distance  from  Granada 
that  the  general  aspect  of  the  city  only  could  be  seen,  as  it  rose 
gracefully  from  the  vega,  covering  the  sides  of  the  hills  with  pal- 
aces and  towers.  Queen  Isabella  had  expressed  an  earnest  desire 
to  behold,  nearer  at  hand,  a  city  whose  beauty  was  so  renowned 
throughout  the  world;  and  the  Marques  of  Cadiz,  with  his  ac- 
customed courtesy,  prepared  a  great  military  escort  and  guard  to 
protect  the  queen  and  the  ladies  of  the  court  while  thej  enjoyed 
this  perilous  gratification. 

"It    was    on    the    morning     after    the    events    just    recorded 


THE    FALL    OF    GRANADA  335 

that  a  magnificent  and  powerful  train  issued  forth  from  the 
Christian  camp.  The  advance  guard  was  composed  of  legions  of 
cavalry,  heavily  armed,  that  looked  like  moving  masses  of  pol- 
ished steel.  Then  came  the  king  and  queen,  with  the  prince  and 
princess,  and  the  ladies  of  the  court,  surrounded  by  the  royal  body- 
guard, sumptuously  arrayed,  composed  of  the  sons  of  the  most 
illustrious  houses  of  Spain;  after  these  was  the  rearguard,  com- 
posed of  a  powerful  force  of  horse  and  foot;  for  the  flower  of  the 
army  sallied  forth  that  day.  The  Moors  gazed  with  fearful  ad- 
miration at  this  glorious  pageant,  wherein  the  pomp  of  the  court 
was  mingled  with  the  terrors  of  the  camp.  It  moved  along  in  a 
radiant  line,  across  the  vega,  to  the  melodious  thunders  of  martial 
music ;  while  banner  and  plume,  and  silken  scarf,  and  rich  brocade, 
gave  a  gay  and  gorgeous  relief  to  the  grim  visage  of  iron  war  that 
lurked  beneath. 

"The  army  moved  toward  the  hamlet  of  Zubia,  built  on  the 
skirts  of  the  mountain  to  the  left  of  Granada,  and  commanding  a 
view  of  the  Alhambra  and  the  most  beautiful  quarter  of  the  city. 
As  they  approached  the  hamlet,  the  Marques  of  Villena,  the  Count 
Urena,  and  Don  Alonzo  de  Aguilar,  filed  oflf  mth  their  battahons, 
and  were  soon  seen  glittering  along  the  side  of  the  mountain  above 
the  village.  In  the  meantime,  the  Marques  of  Cadiz,  the  Count  de 
Tendilla,  the  Count  de  Cabra,  and  Don  Alonzo  Fernandez,  Senior 
Oi  Alcandrete  and  Montemayor,  drew  up  their  forces  in  battle  array 
on  the  plain  below  the  hamlet,  presenting  a  living  barrier  of  loyal 
chivalry  between  the  sovereigns  and  the  city. 

"Thus  securely  guarded,  the  royal  party  alighted,  and,  entering 
one  of  the  houses  of  the  hamlet,  which  had  been  prepared  for  their 
reception,  enjoyed  a  fuU  view  of  the  city  from  its  terraced  roof. 
The  ladies  of  the  court  gazed  with  delight  at  the  red  towers  of  the 
Alhambra,  rising  from  amid  shady  groves,  anticipating  the  time 
when  the  Catholic  sovereigns  should  be  enthroned  within  its  walls 
and  its  courts  shine  wdth  the  splendor  of  Spanish  chivalry.  'The 
reverend  prelates  and  holy  friars,  who  always  surrounded  the 
queen,  looked  with  serene  satisfaction,'  says  Fray  Antonio  Aga- 
pida,  'at  this  modern  Babylon,  enjoying-  the  triumph  that  awaited 
them,  when  those  mosoues  and  minarets  should  be  converted  into 


336  GREAT   BATTLES   OF   ALL   NATIONS 

churches,  and  goodly  priests  and  bishops  should  succeed  to  the 
Infidel  alfaquis. ' 

"When  the  Moors  beheld  the  Christians  thus  drawn  forth  in 
full  array  in  the  plain,  they  supposed  it  was  to  offer  them  battle ; 
and  they  hesitated  not  to  accept  it.  In  a  little  while,  the  queen 
beheld  a  body  of  Moorish  cavalry  pouring  into  the  vega,  the  riders 
managing  their  fleet  and  fiery  steeds  with  admirable  address. 
They  were  richly  armed,  and  clothed  in  the  most  brilliant  colors, 
and  the  caparisons  of  their  steeds  flamed  with  gold  and  embroid- 
ery. This  was  the  favorite  squadron  of  Muza,  composed  of  the 
flower  of  the  youthful  cavaliers  of  Granada.  Others  succeeded, 
some  heavily  armed,  some  a  la  ginete  with  lance  and  buckler; 
and  lastly  came  the  legions  of  foot-soldiers,  with  arquebuse  and 
crossbow,  and  spear  and  scimiter. 

"When  flie  queen  saw  this  army  issuing  from  the  city,  she  sent 
to  the  Marques  of  Cadiz,  and  forbade  any  attack  upon  the  enemy, 
or  the  acceptance  of  any  challenge  to  a  skirmish ;  for  she  was  loth 
that  her  curiosity  should  cost  the  life  of  a  single  human  being. 

"The  marques  promised  to  obey,  though  sorely  against  his  will; 
and  it  grieved  the  spirit  of  the  Spanish  cavaliers  to  be  obliged  to 
remain  with  sheathed  swords  while  bearded  by  the  foe.  The  Moors 
could  not  comprehend  the  meaning  of  this  inaction  of  the  Chris- 
tians, after  having  apparently  invited  a  battle.  They  sallied  sev- 
eral times  from  their  ranks,  and  approached  near  enough  to  dis- 
charge their  arrows ;  but  the  Christians  were  immovable.  Many 
of  the  Moorish  horsemen  galloped  close  to  the  Christian  ranks, 
brandishing  their  lances  and  scimiters,  and  defying  various  cava- 
liers to  single  combat;  but  King  Ferdinand  had  rigorously  pro- 
hibited all  duels  of  the  kind,  and  they  dared  not  transgress  his 
orders  imder  his  very  eye. 

"While  this  grim  and  reluctant  tranquillity  prevailed  along  the 
Christian  line,  there  rose  a  mingled  shout  and  sound  of  laughter 
near  the  gate  of  the  city.  A  Moorish  horseman,  armed  at  all 
points,  issued  forth,  followed  by  a  rabble  who  drew  back  as  he 
approached  the  scene  of  danger.  The  Moor  was  more  robust  and 
brawny  than  was  common  with  his  countrymen.  His  visor  was 
closed;  he  bore  a  huge  buckler  and  a  ponderous  lance;  his  scimiter 


THE    FALL    OF   GRANADA  337 

was  of  a  Damascus  blade,  and  his  richly  ornamented  dagger  was 
wrought  by  an  artificer  of  Fez.  He  was  known  by  his  device  to 
be  Yarfe,  the  most  insolent,  yet  vahant,  of  the  Moslem  warriors — 
the  same  who  had  hurled  into  the  royal  camp  his  lance,  inscribed 
to  the  queen.  As  he  rode  slowly  along  in  front  of  the  army,  his 
very  steed,  prancing  with  fiery  ej'e  and  distended  nostril,  seemed 
to  breathe  defiance  to  the  Christians. 

"But  what  were  the  feelings  of  the  Spanish  cavaliers,  when 
they  beheld,  tied  to  the  tail  of  his  steed,  and  dragged  in  the  dust, 
the  very  inscription,  'Ave  Maria,'  which  Hernando  Perez  del 
Pulgar  had  aflSxed  to  the  door  of  the  mosque !  A  burst  of  horror 
and  indignation  broke  forth  from  the  army.  Hernando  del  Pulgar 
was  not  at  hand  to  maintain  his  previous  achievement ;  but  one  of 
his  young  companions  in  arms,  Garcilasso  de  la  Vega  by  name, 
putting  spurs  to  his  horse,  galloped  to  the  hamlet  of  Zubia,  threw 
himself  on  his  knees  before  the  king,  and  besought  permission  to 
accept  the  defiance  of  this  insolent  Infidel,  and  to  revenge  the 
insult  oifered  to  our  blessed  Lad}-.  The  request  was  too  pious  to 
be  refused :  Garcilasso  remounted  his  steed ;  he  closed  his  helmet, 
graced  by  four  sable  plumes,  grasped  his  buckler  of  Flemish  work- 
manship, and  his  lance  of  matchless  temper,  and  defied  the  haughty 
]Moor  in  the  midst  of  his  career.  A  combat  took  place  in  view  of 
the  two  armies  and  of  the  Castilian  court.  The  Moor  was  power- 
ful in  wielding  his  weapons  and  dexterous  in  managing  his  steed. 
He  was  of  larger  frame  than  Garcilasso,  and  more  completel}' 
armed;  and  the  Christians  trembled  for  their  champion.  The 
shock  of  their  encounter  was  dreadful;  their  lances  were  shivered, 
and  sent  up  splinters  in  the  air.  Garcilasso  was  thrown  back  in 
the  saddle — his  horse  made  a  wide  career,  before  he  could  recover, 
gather  up  the  reins,  and  return  to  the  conflict.  They  now  encoun- 
tered each  other  with  swords.  The  Moor  circled  round  his  oppo- 
nent, as  a  hawk  circles  whereabout  to  make  a  swoop ;  his  Arabian 
steed  obeyed  his  rider  with  matchless  quickness ;  at  every  attack 
of  the  Infidel  it  seemed  as  if  the  Christian  knight  must  sink  be- 
neatli  his  flashing  scimiter.  But  if  Garcilasso  were  inferior  to  him 
in  power,  he  was  superior  in  agility :  many  of  his  blows  he  parried ; 
others  he  received  upon  his  Flemish  shield,  which  was  proof  against 


338  GREAT   BATTLES   OF   ALL   NATIONS 

the  Damascus  blade.  The  blood  streamed  from  numerous  wounds 
received  by  either  warrior.  The  Moor,  seeing  his  antagonist  ex- 
hausted, availed  himself  of  his  superior  force,  and,  grappling, 
endeavored  to  wrest  him  from  his  saddle.  They  both  fell  to 
earth;  the  Moor  placed  his  knee  upon  the  breast  of  his  victim, 
and,  brandishing  his  dagger,  aimed  a  blow  at  his  throat.  A  cry 
of  despair  was  uttered  by  the  Christian  warriors,  when  suddenly 
they  beheld  the  Moor  rolhng  lifeless  in  the  dust.  Garcilasso  had 
shortened  his  sword,  and,  as  his  adversary  raised  his  arm  to  strike, 
had  pierced  him  to  the  heart.  'It  was  a  singular  and  miraculous 
victory,'  says  Fray  Antonio  Agapida;  'but  the  Christian  knight 
was  armed  by  the  sacred  nature  of  his  cause,  and  the  holy  Virgin 
gave  him  strength,  like  another  David,  to  slay  this  gigantic  cham- 
pion of  the  Gentiles.' 

"The  laws  of  chivalry  were  observed  throughout  the  combat — 
no  one  interfered  on  either  side.  Garcilasso  now  despoiled  his 
adversary;  then,  rescuing  the  holy  inscription  of  'Ave  Maria' 
from  its  degrading  situation,  he  elevated  it  on  the  point  of  his 
sword,  and  bore  it  off  as  a  signal  of  triumph  amid  the  rapturous 
shouts  of  the  Christian  army. 

"The  sun  had  now  reached  the  meridian;  and  the  hot  blood  of 
the  Moors  was  inflamed  by  its  rays  and  by  the  sight  of  the  defeat 
of  their  champion.  Muza  ordered  two  pieces  of  ordnance  to  open 
a  fire  upon  the  Christians.  A  confusion  was  produced  in  one  part 
of  their  ranks:  Muza  called  to  the  chiefs  of  the  army,  'Let  us 
waste  no  more  time  in  empty  challenges — let  us  charge  upon  the 
enemy :  he  who  assaults  has  always  an  advantage  in  the  combat. ' 
So  saying,  he  rushed  forward,  followed  by  a  large  body  of  horse 
and  foot,  and  charged  so  furiously  upon  the  advance  guard  of  the 
Christians  that  he  drove  it  in  upon  the  battalion  of  the  Marques 
of  Cadiz. 

"The  gallant  marques  now  considered  himself  absolved  from 
all  further  obedience  to  the  queen's  commands.  He  gave  the 
signal  to  attack.  'Santiago!'  was  shouted  along  the  line;  and 
he  pressed  forward  to  the  encounter,  -with  his  battalion  of  twelve 
hundred  lances.  The  other  cavaliers  followed  his  example,  and 
the  battle  instantly  became  general. 


THE    FALL    OF    GRANADA  339 

"  'When  the  king  and  queen  beheld  the  armies  thus  rushing  to 
the  combat,  they  threw  themselves  on  their  knees  and  implored 
the  holy  Virgin  to  protect  her  faithful  warriors.  The  prince  and 
princess,  the  ladies  of  the  court,  and  the  prelates  and  friars  who 
were  present,  did  the  same ;  and  the  effect  of  the  prayers  of  these 
illustrious  and  saintly  persons  was  immediately  apparent.  The 
fierceness  with  which  the  Moors  had  rushed  to  the  attack  was 
suddenly  cooled;  they  were  bold  and  adroit  for  a  skirmish,  but 
unequal  to  the  veteran  Spaniards  in  the  open  field.  A  panic 
seized  upon  the  foot-soldiers— they  turned,  and  took  to  flight. 
Muza  and  his  cavaliers  in  vain  endeavored  to  vaWj  them.  Some 
took  refuge  in  the  mountains ;  but  the  greater  part  fled  to  the  city 
in  such  confusion  that  they  overturned  and  trampled  upon  each 
other.  The  Christians  pursued  them  to  the  ver}'  gates.  Upward 
of  two  thousand  were  either  killed,  wounded,  or  taken  prisoners; 
and  the  two  pieces  of  ordnance  were  brought  off  as  trophies  of 
the  victory.  Not  a  Christian  lance  but  was  bathed  that  day  in 
the  blood  of  an  Infidel.' 

"Such  was  the  brief  but  bloody  action  which  was  known 
among  the  Christian  warriors  by  the  name  of  'the  queen's  skir- 
mish' ;  for  when  the  Marques  of  Cadiz  waited  upon  her  majesty 
to  apologize  for  breaking  her  commands,  he  attributed  the  victory 
entirely  to  her  presence.  The  queen,  however,  insisted  that  it 
was  all  owing  to  her  troops  being  led  on  by  so  valiant  a  com- 
mander. Her  majesty  had  not  yet  recovered  from  her  agita- 
tion at  beholding  so  terrible  a  scene  of  bloodshed ;  though  certain 
veterans  present  pronounced  it  as  gay  and  gentle  a  skirmish  as 
they  had  ever  witnessed. 

"To  commemorate  this  victory,  the  queen  afterward  erected 
a  monastery  in  this  \allage  of  Zubia,  dedicated  to  St.  Francisco, 
which  still  exists;  and  in  its  garden  is  a  laurel,  planted  by  the 
hands  of  her  majesty. 

"The  ravages  of  war  had  as  3-et  spared  a  little  portion  of  the 
vega  of  Granada.  A  green  belt  of  gardens  and  orchards  still 
flourished  round  the  city,  extending  along  Ihe  banks  of  the  Xenil 
and  the  Darro.  They  had  been  the  solace  and  delight  of  the  in- 
habitants in  their  happier  daj-s,  and  contributed  to  their  sustenance 


340  GREAT   BATTLES    OF    ALL   NATIONS 

in  this  time  of  scarcity.  Ferdinand  determined  to  make  a  final 
and  exterminating  ravage  to  the  very  walls  of  the  city,  so  that 
there  should  not  remain  a  single  green  thing  for  the  sustenance  of 
man  or  beast.  The  evening  of  a  hot  July  day  shone  splendidly 
upon  the  Christian  camp,  which  was  in  a  bustle  of  preparation  for 
the  next  day's  service — for  desperate  resistance  was  expected  from 
the  Moors.  The  camp  made  a  glorious  appearance  in  the  setting 
sun.  The  various  tents  of  the  royal  famih'  and  the  attendant 
nobles  were  adorned  with  rich  hangings,  and  sumptuous  de\aces, 
and  costly  furniture ;  forming,  as  it  were,  a  little  city  of  silk  and 
brocade,  where  the  pinnacles  of  pavilions  of  various  gay  colors, 
surmounted  ^A^ith  waving  standards  and  fluttering  pennons,  might 
vie  with  the  domes  and  minarets  of  the  capital  they  were  besieging. 

"In  the  midst  of  this  little  gaudy  metropolis,  the  lofty  tent  of 
the  queen  domineered  over  the  rest  like  a  stately  palace.  The 
Marques  of  Cadiz  had  courteously  surrendered  his  own  tent  to  the 
queen :  it  was  the  most  complete  and  sumptuous  in  Christendom, 
and  had  been  carried  about  with  him  throughout  the  war.  In  the 
center  rose  a  stately  alfaneque  or  pavilion  in  Oriental  taste,  the 
rich  hangings  being  supported  by  columns  of  lances  and  orna- 
mented with  martial  devices.  This  central  pavilion  or  silken  tower 
was  surrounded  by  other  compartments,  some  of  painted  linen  lined 
with  silk,  and  all  separated  from  each  other  by  curtains.  It  was 
one  of  those  camp  palaces  which  are  raised  and  demolished  in  an 
instant,  like  the  city  of  ca'nvas  that  surrounds  them. 

"As  the  evening  advanced,  the  bustle  in  the  camp  subsided. 
Every  one  sought  repose,  preparatorj'^  to  the  next  day's  trial.  Tlie 
king  retired  early,  that  he  might  be  up  with  the  crowing  of  the 
cock,  to  head  the  destroying  army  in  person.  All  stir  of  military- 
preparation  was  hushed  in  the  royal  quarters;  the  very  sound  of 
minstrelsy  was  mute,  and  not  the  tinkling  of  a  guitar  was  to  be 
heard  from  the  tents  of  the  fair  ladies  of  the  court. 

"The  queen  had  retired  to  the  innermost  part  of  her  pavilion, 
where  she  was  performing  her  orisons  before  a  private  altar;  per- 
haps the  peril  to  which  the  king  might  be  exposed  in  the  next  da3'\s 
foray  inspired  her  with  more  than  usual  devotion.  While  thus  at 
her  prayers,   she  was  suddenly  aroused  by  a  glare  of  light  and 


•• 


THE    FALL    OF    GRANADA  341 

wreaths  of  suffocating  smoke.  In  an  instant,  the  whole  tent  was 
in  a  blaze :  there  was  a  high  gusty  wind,  which  whirled  the  Hght 
flames  from  tent  to  tent,  and  wrapped  the  whole  in  one  confla- 
gration. 

"Isabella  had  barely  time  to  save  herself  by  instant  flight. 
Iler  first  thought,  on  being  extricated  from  her  tent,  was  for  the 
safety  of  the  king.  She  rushed  to  his  tent,  but  the  vigilant  Ferdi- 
nand was  already  at  the  entrance  of  it.  Starting  from  bed  on  the 
first  alarm,  and  fancying  it  an  assault  of  the  enemy,  he  had  seized 
his  sword  and  buckler,  and  sallied  forth  imdressed,  with  his  cuirass 
upon  his  arm. 

"The  late  gorgeous  camp  was  now  a  scene  of  wild  confusion. 
The  flames  kept  spreading  from  one  pavihon  to  another,  glaring 
upon  the  rich  armor,  and  golden  and  silver  vessels,  which  seemed 
melting  in  the  fer^'ent  heat.  Many  of  the  soldiers  had  erected 
booths  and  bowers  of  branches,  which,  being  dry,  crackled  and 
blazed,  and  added  to  the  rapid  conflagration.  The  ladies  of  the 
court  fled,  shrieking  and  half-dressed,  from  their  tents.  There 
was  an  alarm  of  drum  and  trumpet,  and  a  distracted  huriy  about 
the  camp  of  men  liaK-armed.  The  Prince  Juan  had  been  snatched 
out  of  bed  by  an  attendant,  and  conveyed  to  the  quarters  of  the 
Count  de  Cabra,  which  were  at  the  entrance  of  the  camp.  The 
loyal  count  immediately  summoned  his  people,  and  those  of  his 
cousin  Don  Alonzo  de  Montemayor,  and  formed  a  guard  round  the 
tent  in  which  the  prince  was  sheltered. 

"The  idea  that  this  was  a  stratagem  of  the  Moors  soon  subsided; 
but  it  was  feared  that  thej'  might  take  advantage  of  it  to  assault 
the  camp.  The  Marques  of  Cadiz,  therefore,  sallied  forth  with 
three  thousand  horse  to  check  any  advance  from  the  city.  As 
they  passed  along,  the  whole  camp  was  a  scene  of  hurry  and  con- 
sternation— some  hastening  to  their  posts  at  the  call  of  drum  and 
trumpet ;  some  attempting  to  save  rich  effects  and  glittering  armor 
from  the  tents,  others  dragging  along  terrified  and  restive  horses. 

"When  they  emerged  from  the  camp  they  found  the  "whole 
firmament  illuminated.  The  flames  whirled  uj)  in  long  light 
spires,  and  the  air  was  filled  with  sparks  and  cinders.  A  bright 
glare  was  thrown  upon  the  citj^,  revealing  every  battlement  and 


342  GREAT   BATTLES    OF   ALL   NATIONS 

tower.  Turbaned  heads  were  seen  gazing  from  every  roof,  and 
armor  gleamed  along  the  walls;  yet  not  a  single  warrior  sallied 
from  the  gates :  the  Moors  suspected  some  stratagem  on  the  part 
of  the  Christians,  and  kept  quietly  mthin  their  walls.  By  degrees 
the  flames  expired;  the  city  faded  from  sight;  all  again  becanae 
dark  and  quiet,  and  the  Marques  of  Cadiz  returned  with  his  cav- 
alry to  the  camp, 

"When  day  dawned  on  the  Christian  camp,  nothing  remained 
of  that  beautiful  assemblage  of  stately  pavilions  but  heaps  of  smol- 
dering rubbish,  with  helms  and  corselets  and  other  furniture  of 
war,  and  masses  of  melted  gold  and  silver  glittering  among  the 
ashes.  The  Avardrobe  of  the  queen  was  entirely  destroyed,  and 
there  was  an  immense  loss  in  plate,  jewels,  costly  stuffs,  and 
sumptuous  armor  of  the  luxurious  nobles.  The  fire  at  first  had 
been  attributed  to  treachery,  but  on  investigation  it  proved  to  be 
entirely  accidental.  The  queen,  on  retiring  to  her  prayers,  had 
ordered  her  lady  in  attendance  to  remove  a  light  burning  near 
her  couch,  lest  it  should  prevent  her  sleeping.  Through  heedless- 
ness, the  taper  was  placed  in  another  part  of  the  tent,  near  the 
hangings,  vrhich,  being  blown  against  it  by  a  gust  of  wind,  im- 
mediately took  fire. 

"The  wary  Ferdinand  knew  the  sanguine  temperament  of  the 
Moors,  and  hastened  to  prevent  their  deriving  confidence  from 
the  night's  disaster.  At  break  of  day,  the  drums  and  trumpets 
sounded  to  arms,  and  the  Christian  armj*  issued  from  among  the 
smoking  ruins  of  their  camp,  in  shining  squadrons,  with  flaunting 
banners  and  bursts  of  martial  melodj^,  as  though  the  preceding 
night  had  been  a  time  of  high  festivity,  instead  of  terror. 

"The  Moors  had  beheld  the  conflagration  AAnth  wonder  and  per- 
plexity. "When  the  day  broke,  and  they  looked  toward  the  Chris- 
tian camp^  they  saw  nothing  but  a  dark  smoking  mass.  Their 
scouts  came  in,  with  the  joyful  intelligence  that  the  whole  camp 
was  a  scene  of  ruin.  Scarce  had  the  tidings  spread  throughout 
the  city,  when  they  beheld  the  Christian  army  advancing  toward 
their  walls.  They  considered  it  a  feint,  to  cover  their  desperate 
situation  and  prepare  for  a  retreat.  Boabdil  el  Chico  had  one  of 
iiis  impulses  of  valor — he  determined  to  take  the  field  in  person. 


THE    FALL    OF    GRANADA  343 

and  to  follow  up  this  signal  blow  which  Allah  had  inflicted  on 
the  enemy. 

"The  Christian  army  approached  close  to  the  city,  and  were 
laying  waste  the  gardens  and  orchards,  when  Boabdil  sallied  forth, 
surrounded  bj'-  all  that  was  left  of  the  flower  and  chivalry  of  Gra- 
nada. There  is  one  place  where  even  the  coward  becomes  brave — 
that  sacred  spot  called  home.  "What  then  must  have  been  the  valor 
of  the  Moors,  a  people  always  of  fiery  spirit,  when  the  war  was 
thus  brought  to  their  thresholds !  They  fought  among  the  scenes 
of  their  loves  and  pleasures ;  the  scenes  of  their  infancy,  and  the 
haunts  of  their  domestic  life.  They  fought  under  the  eyes  of  their 
wives  and  children,  their  old  men  and  their  maidens,  of  all  that 
"was  helpless  and  all  that  was  dear  to  them;  for  all  Granada, 
crowded  on  tower  and  battlement,  watched  with  trembling  heart 
the  fate  of  this  eventful  day. 

"There  was  not  so  much  one  battle  as  a  variety  of  battles;  every 
garden  and  orchard  became  a  scene  of  deadly  contest ;  every  inch 
of  ground  was  disputed,  with  an  agony  of  grief  and  valor,  by  the 
Moors;  every  inch  of  ground  that  the  Christians  advanced,  they 
valiantly  maintained;  but  never  did  they  advance  with  severer 
fighting  or  greater  loss  of  blood. 

"The  cavalry  of  Muza  was  in  every  part  of  the  field;  wherever 
it  came,  it  gave  fresh  ardor  to  the  fight.  The  Moorish  soldier, 
fainting  with  heat,  fatigue,  and  wounds,  was  roused  to  new  life 
at  the  approach  of  Muza;  and  even  he  who  lay  gasping  in  the 
agonies  of  death  turned  his  face  toward  him  and  faintly  uttered 
cheers  and  blessings  as  he  passed. 

"The  Christians  had  by  this  time  gained  possession  of  various 
towers  near  the  city,  from  whence  they  had  been  annoyed  by  cross- 
bows and  arquebuses.  The  Moors,  scattered  in  various  actions, 
were  severely  pressed.  Boabdil,  at  the  head  of  the  cavaliers  of  his 
guard,  displayed  the  utmost  valor,  mingling  in  the  fight  in  various 
parts  of  the  field,  and  endeavoring  to  inspirit  the  foot-soldiers  in 
the  combat.  But  the  Moorish  infantry  was  never  to  be  depended 
upon.  In  the  heat  of  the  action,  a  panic  seized  upon  them ;  they 
fled,  leaving  their  sovereign  exposed  with  his  handful  of  cavaliers 
to  an  overwhelming  force.     Boabdil  ^vas  on  the  point  of  falling 


344  GREAT    BATTLES    OF    ALL    NATIONS 

into  the  hands  of  the  Christians,  when,  wheehng  round,  with  his 
followers,  they  threw  the  reins  on  the  necks  of  their  fleet  steeds, 
and  took  refuge  by  dint  of  hoof  within  the  walls  of  the  city, 

"Muza  endeavored  to  retrieve  the  fortune  of  the  field.  He 
threw  himself  before  the  retreating  infantry,  calling  upon  them  to 
turn  and  fight  for  their  homes,  their  families,  for  everything  that 
was  sacred  and  dear  to  them.  It  was  all  in  vain — they  were  totally 
broken  and  dismayed,  and  fled  tumultuously  for  the  gates.  Muza 
would  fain  have  kept  the  field  with  his  cavalry ;  but  this  devoted 
band,  having  stood  the  brunt  of  war  throughout  this  desperate 
campaign,  was  fearfully  reduced  in  numbers,  and  many  of  the 
survivors  were  crippled  and  enfeebled  by  their  wounds.  Slowl}'^ 
and  reluctantly  Muza  retreated  to  the  city,  his  bosom  swelling  with 
indignation  and  despair.  When  he  entered  the  gates,  he  ordered 
them  to  be  closed,  and  secured  with  bolts  and  bars;  for  he  refused 
to  place  any  further  confidence  in  the  archers  and  arquebusiers 
who  were  stationed  to  defend  them,  and  he  vowed  never  more  to 
sally  forth  with  foot-soldiers  to  the  field. 

"In  the  meantime  the  artillery  thundered  from  the  waUs,  and 
checked  all  further  advances  of  the  Christians.  King  Ferdinand, 
therefore,  called  off  his  troops,  and  returned  in  triumph  to  the 
ruins  of  his  camp,  leaving  the  beautiful  city  of  Granada  wrapped 
in  the  smoke  of  her  fields  and  gardens,  and  surrounded  by  the 
bodies  of  her  slaughtered  children. 

"Such  was  the  last  sally  made  by  the  Moors  in  defense  of 
their  favorite  cit}'.  The  French  embassador,  who  witnessed  it, 
was  filled  with  wonder  at  the  prowess,  the  dexterity,  and  daring 
of  the  Moslems. 

"In  truth,  this  whole  war  was  an  instance,  memorable  in  his- 
tory, of  the  most  persevering  resolution.  For  nearly  ten  j-ears  had 
the  war  endured — an  almost  uninterrupted  series  of  disasters  to  the 
Moorish  arms.  Their  towns  had  been  taken,  one  after  another, 
and  their  brethren  slain  or  led  into  captivity.  Yet  they  disputed 
every  city  and  town,  and  fortress  and  castle,  na}-,  every  rock  itself, 
as  if  they  had  been  inspirited  by  victories.  Wherever  they  could 
plant  foot  to  fight,  or  find  wall  or  cliff  from  whence  to  lanch  an 
arrow,  they  disputed  their  beloved  country;    and  now,  when  their 


THE   FALL    OF   GRANADA  345 

capital  was  cut  off  from  all  relief  and  had  a  whole  nation  thunder- 
ing at  its  gates,  they  still  maintained  defense,  as  if  the}'  hoped  some 
miracle  to  interpose  in  their  behalf.  Their  obstinate  resistance 
(says  an  ancient  chronicler)  shows  the  grief  with  which  the  Moors 
yielded  up  the  vega,  which  was  to  them  a  paradise  and  heaven. 
Exerting  all  the  strength  of  their  arms,  they  embraced,  as  it 
were,  that  most  beloved  soil  from  which  neither  wounds,  nor 
defeats,  nor  death  itself,  could  part  them.  They  stood  firm, 
batthng  for  it  with  the  united  force  of  love  and  grief,  never 
drawing  back  the  foot  while  they  had  hands  to  fight,  or  fortune 
to  befriend  them. 

"The  Moors  now  shut  themselves  up  gloomily  within  their  walls; 
there  were  no  longer  any  daring  sallies  from  their  gates ;  and  even 
the  martial  clangor  of  the  drum  and  trumpet,  which  had  contin- 
ually resounded  within  that  warrior  city,  was  now  seldom  heard 
from  its  battlements.  For  a  time,  they  fiattered  themselves  with 
hopes  that  the  late  conflagration  of  the  camp  would  discourage 
the  besiegers;  that,  as  in  former  years,  their  invasion  would  end 
with  the  summer,  and  that  they  would  again  withdraw  before 
the  autmnnal  rains. 

"The  measures  of  Ferdinand  and  Isabella  soon  crushed  these 
hopes.  They  gave  orders  to  build  a  regular  city  upon  the  site  of 
their  camp,  to  convince  the  Moors  that  the  siege  was  to  endure 
until  the  surrender  of  Granada.  Nine  of  the  principal  cities  of 
Spain  were  charged  Avith  this  stupendous  undertaking;  and  they 
emidated  each  other  with  a  zeal  worthy  of  the  cause.  'It  verily 
seems,'  says  Fray  Antonio  Agapida,  'as  though  some  miracle  oper- 
ated to  aid  this  pious  work,  so  rapidly  did  arise  a  formidable  city, 
with  solid  edifices,  and  powerful  walls,  and  mighty  towers,  where 
lately  had  been  seen  nothing  but  tents  and  light  pavilions.  The 
city  was  traversed  by  two  principal  streets  in  form  of  a  cross, 
terminating  in  four  gates  facing  the  four  winds ;  and  in  the  center 
was  a  vast  square,  where  the  whole  army  might  be  assembled.  To 
this  city  it  was  proposed  to  give  the  name  of  Isabella,  so  dear  to 
the  army  and  the  nation:  'But  that  pious  princess,'  adds  Antonio 
Agapida,  'calling  to  mind  the  holy  cause  in  which  it  was  erected, 
gave  it  the  name  of  Santa  Fe  (or  the  City  of  the  Holy  Faith);  and 


346  GREAT   BATTLES    OF    ALL    NATIONS 

it  remains  to  this  day  a  monument  of  the  piety  and  glory  of  the 
CathoMc  sovereigns. ' 

"Hither  the  merchants  soon  resorted  from  all  points.  Long 
trains  of  mules  were  seen  every  day  entering  and  departing  from 
its  gates ;  the  streets  were  crowded  with  magazines,  filled  with  all 
kinds  of  costly  and  luxurious  merchandise;  a  scene  of  bustling 
commerce  and  prosperity  took  place,  w^hile  unhappy  Granada 
remained  shut  up  and  desolate. 

"In  the  meantime,  the  besieged  city  began  to  suffer  the  distress 
of  famine.  Its  supplies  were  all  cut  off;  a  cavalgada  of  flocks  and 
herds,  and  mules  laden  with  money,  coming  to  the  relief  of  the  city 
from  the  mountains  of  the  Alpuxarras,  was  taken  by  the  Marques 
of  Cadiz,  and  led  in  triumph  to  the  camp,  in  sight  of  the  suffering 
Moors.  Autumn  arrived ;  but  the  harvests  had  been  swept  from 
the  face  of  the  country;  a,  rigorous  winter  was  approaching,  and 
the  city  was  almost  destitute  of  provisions.  The  people  sank  into 
deep  despondency.  They  called  to  mind  all  that  had  been  predicted 
by  astrologers  at  the  birth  of  their  ill-starred  sovereign,  and  all  that 
had  been  foretold  of  the  fate  of  Granada  at  the  time  of  the  capture 
of  Zahara. 

"Boabdil  was  alarmed  by  the  gathering  dangers  from  without, 
and  by  the  clamors  of  his  starving  people.  He  summoned  a  coim- 
cil,  composed  of  the  principal  officers  of  the  army,  the  alcaydes  of 
the  fortresses,  the  xequis  or  sages  of  the  city,  and  the  alfaquis  or 
doctors  of  the  faith.  They  assembled  in  the  great  hall  of  audience 
of  the  Alhambra,  and  despair  was  painted  in  their  countenances. 
Boabdil  demanded  of  them  what  was  to  be  done  in  their  present 
extremity;  and  their  answer  was,  'Surrender.'  The  venerable 
Abul  Cazim  Abdel  Melic,  governor  of  the  city,  represented  its 
unhappy  state:  *Our  granaries  are  nearly  exhausted,  and  no 
further  supplies  are  to  be  expected.  The  provender  for  the  war- 
horses  is  required  as  sustenance  for  the  soldiery ;  the  very  horses 
themselves  are  killed  for  food;  of  seven  thousand  steeds  which 
once  could  be  sent  into  the  field,  three  hundred  only  remain.  Our 
city  contains  two  hundred  thousand  inhabitants,  old  and  young, 
with  each  a  mouth  that  calls  piteously  for  bread.' 

"The  xequis  and  principal  citizens  declared  that  the  people  could 


THE   FALL    OF    GRANADA  347 

no  longer  sustain  the  labors  and  sufferings  of  a  defense:  'And  of 
what  avail  is  our  defense,'  said  they,  'when  the  enemy  is  deter- 
mined to  persist  in  the  siege? — what  alternative  remains  but  to 
surrender  or  to  die?' 

"The  heart  of  Boabdil  was  touched  by  this  appeal  and  he  main- 
tained a  gloomy  silence.  He  had  cherished  some  faint  hope  of 
relief  from  the  soldan  of  Egj-pt  or  the  Barbary  powders :  but  it  was 
now  at  an  end ;  even  if  such  assistance  were  to  be  sent,  he  had  no 
longer  a  seaport  where  it  might  debark.  The  counselors  saw  that 
the  resolution  of  the  king  was  shaken,  and  they  united  their  voices 
in  urging  him  to  capitulate. 

"The  vaHant  Muza  alone  arose  in  opposition:  'It  is  yet  too 
early,'  said  he,  'to  talk  of  a  surrender.  Our  means  are  not  ex- 
hausted; we  have  yet  one  source  of  strength  remaining,  terrible 
in  its  effect>?,  and  which  often  has  achieved  the  most  signal  vic- 
tories— it  is  our  despair.  Let  us  rouse  the  mass  of  the  people — let 
us  put  weapons  in  their  hands — let  us  fight  the  enemy  to  the  very 
utmost  until  we  rush  upon  the  points  of  their  lances.  I  am  ready 
to  lead  the  way  into  the  thickest  of  their  squadrons ;  and  much 
rather  would  I  be  numbered  among  those  who  fell  in  the  defense 
of  Granada  than  of  those  who  survived  to  capitulate  for  her  sur- 
render!' 

"The  words  of  Muza  were  without  effect,  for  they  were  ad- 
dressed to  broken-spirited  and  heartless  men,  or  men,  perhaps,  to 
whom  sad  experience  had  taught  discretion.  They  were  arrived 
at  that  state  of  public  depression  when  heroes  and  heroism  are  no 
longer  regarded,  and  when  old  men  and  their  counsels  rise  into 
importance.  Boabdil  el  Chico  jnelded  to  the  general  voice;  it  was 
determined  to  capitulate  with  the  Christian  sovereigns;  and  the 
venerable  Abul  Cazim  Abdel  Melio  was  sent  forth  to  the  camp, 
empowered  to  treat  for  terms. 

"The  old  governor,  Abul  Cazim  Abdel  Melic,  was  received 
with  great  distinction  by  Ferdinand  and  Isabella,  who  appointed 
Gonsalvo  of  Cordova  and  Fernando  de  Zafra,  secretary  to  the 
king,  to  confer  with  him.  All  Granada  awaited,  in  trembling 
anxietj',  the  result  of  his  negotiations.  After  repeated  conferences, 
he  at  length  returned  with  the  ultimate  terms  of  the  Catholic  sov- 


348  GREAT    BATTLES    OF   ALL   iNATlONS 

ereigns.  They  agreed  to  suspend  all  attack  for  seventy  days,  at 
the  end  of  which  time,  if  no  succor  should  arrive  to  the  Moorish 
king,  the  city  of  Granada  was  to  be  siirrendered. 

"All  Christian  captives  should  be  liberated  ^vithout  ransom. 

"Boabdil  and  his  principal  cavaliers  should  take  an  oath  of 
fealty  to  the  Castilian  crown,  and  certain  valuable  territories  in 
the  Alpuxarra  mountains  should  be  assigned  to  the  Moorish  mon- 
arch for  his  maintenance. 

"The  Moors  of  Granada  should  become  subjects  of  the  Spanish 
sovereigns,  retaining  their  possessions,  their  arms  and  horses,  and 
yielding  up  nothing  but  their  artillery.  They  should  be  protected 
in  the  exercise  of  their  religion,  and  governed  by  their  own  laws, 
administered  by  cadis  of  their  own  faith,  under  governors  appointed 
by  the  sovereigns.  They  should  be  exempted  from  tribute  for  three 
3"ears,  after  which  term  tlie}^  should  pay  the  same  that  they  had 
been  accustomed  to  render  to  their  native  monarchs. 

"Those  who  chose  to  depart  fur  Africa  within  three  years  should 
be  provided  with  a  passage  for  themselves  and  their  effects,  free  of 
charge,  from  whatever  port  they  should  prefer. 

"For  the  fulfillment  of  these  articles  four  hundred  hostages 
from  the  principal  families  were  required  previous  to  the  surrender, 
to  be  subsequently  restored.  The  son  of  the  king  of  Granada,  and 
all  other  hostages  in  possession  of  the  Castilian  sovereigns,  were 
to  be  restored  at  the  same  time. 

"Such  were  the  conditions  that  the  wazir  Abul  Cazim  laid 
before  the  comicil  of  Granada  as  the  best  that  could  be  obtained 
from  the  besieging  foe. 

"When  the  members  of  the  council  found  that  the  awful  mo- 
ment had  arrived  when  they  were  to  sign  and  seal  the  perdition 
of  their  empire,  and  blot  themselves  out  as  a  nation,  all  firmness 
deserted  them,  and  many  gave  way  to  tears.  Muza  alone  retained 
an  unaltered  mien:  'Leave,  seniors,'  cried  he,  'this  idle  lamentation 
to  helpless  women  and  children :  we  are  men — we  have  hearts,  not 
to  shed  tender  tears,  but  drops  of  blood.  I  see  the  spirit  of  the 
people  so  cast  doMii  that  it  is  impossible  to  save  the  kingdom.  Yet 
there  still  remains  an  alternative  for  noble  minds — a  glorious  death ! 
Let  us  die  defending  our  liberty,  and  avenging  the  woes  of  Gra- 


THE    FALL    OF    GRANADA  349 

luida.  Our  mother  earth  will  receive  her  children  into  her  bosom, 
safe  from  the  chains  and  oppressions  of  the  conqueror;  or,  should 
any  fail  a  sepulcher  to  hide  his  remains,  he  will  not  want  a  sky  to 
cover  him.  Allah  forbid  it  should  be  said  the  nobles  of  Granada 
feared  to  die  in  her  defense!' 

"Muza  ceased  to  speak,  and  a  dead  silence  reigned  in  the  as- 
sembly. Boabdil  el  Chico  looked  anxiously  round  and  scanned 
every  face ;  but  he  read  in  them  all  the  anxiety  of  careworn  men, 
in  whose  hearts  enthusiasm  was  dead,  and  who  had  grown  callous 
to  every  chivalrous  appeal.  'Allah  Achbar!  God  is  great!'  ex- 
claimed he;  'there  is  no  God  but  God,  and  Mahomet  is  His 
prophet!  It  is  in  vain  to  struggle  against  the  will  of  Heaven. 
Too  surely  was  it  written  in  the  book  of  fate  that  I  should  be 
imfortunate  and  the  kingdom  expire  under  my  rule.' 

"  'Allah  Achbar!  God  is  great!'  echoed  the  viziers  and  alfa- 
(juis;  'the  will  of  God  be  done!'  So  they  all  accorded  with  the 
king  that  these  evils  were  preordained;  that  it  was  hopeless  to 
contend  with  them ;  and  that  the  terms  offered  by  the  Castilian 
monarchs  were  as  favorable  as  could  be  expected. 

""When  Muza  saw  that  they  were  about  to  sign  the  treaty  of 
surrender,  he  rose  in  violent  indignation:  'Do  not  deceive  your- 
selves,' cried  he,  'nor  think  the  Christians  will  be  faithful  to  their 
promises,  or  their  king  as  magnanimous  in  conquest  as  he  has  been 
victorious  in  war.  Death  is  the  least  we  have  to  fear.  It  is  the 
plundering  and  sacking  of  our  city,  the  profanation  of  our  mosques, 
the  ruin  of  our  homes,  the  violation  of  our  wives  and  daughters — 
cruel  oppression,  bigoted  intolerance,  whips  and  chains,  the  dun- 
geon, the  fagot,  and  the  stake — such  are  the  miseries  and  indigni- 
ties we  shall  see  and  suffer;  at  least,  those  groveling  souls  will  see 
them  who  now  shrink  from  an  honorable  death.  For  my  part,  b\- 
Allah,  I  will  never  witness  them!' 

"With  these  words  he  left  the  council  chamber,  and  strode 
gloomily  through  the  Court  of  Lions  and  the  outer  halls  of  the 
Alhambra,  without  deigning  to  speak  to  the  obsequious  courtiers 
who  attended  in  them.  He  repaired  to  his  dwelling,  armed  him- 
self at  all  points,  mounted  his  favorite  war-horse,  and,  issuing  fortli 
from  the  city  by  the  gate  of  Elvira,  was  never  seen  or  heard  of 


350  GREAT    BATTLES    OF   ALL    NATIONS 

more.  Such  is  the  account  given  by  Arabian  historians  of  the  exit 
of  Muza  ben  Abel  Gazan;  but  the  venerable  Fray  Antonio  Agapida 
endeavors  to  clear  up  the  mystery  of  his  fate.  That  very  evening, 
a  small  party  of  Andalusian  cavaliers,  somewhat  more  than  half  a 
score  of  lances,  were  riding  along  the  banks  of  the  Xenil,  where  it 
winds  through  the  vega.  They  beheld  in  the  twilight  a  Moorish 
warrior  approaching,  closely  locked  up  from  head  to  foot  in  proof. 
His  visor  was  closed,  his  lance  in  rest,  his  powerful  charger  barbed 
Hke  himself  in  steel.  The  Christians  were  lightly  armed,  with 
corselet,  helm  and  target;  for,  dm-ing  the  truce,  they  apprehended 
no  attack.  Seeing,  however,  the  unknown  warrior  approach  in 
this  hostile  guise,  they  challenged  him  to  stand  and  declare 
himself. 

"The  Moslem  answered  not,  but,  charging  into  the  midst  of 
them,  transfixed  one  knight  with  his  lance,  and  bore  him  out  of 
his  saddle  to  the  earth.  Wheehng  round,  he  attacked  the  rest 
with  his  scimiter.  His  blows  were  f m*ious  and  deadly ;  he  seemed 
regardless  what  wounds  he  received,  so  he  could  but  slay.  He 
was  evidently'  fighting,  not  for  glory,  but  revenge — eager  to  inflict 
death,  but  careless  of  surviving  to  enjoy  victory.  Near  one-half  of 
the  cavaliers  fell  beneath  his  sword  before  he  received  a  dangerous 
wound,  so  completely  was  he  cased  in  armor  of  proof.  At  length 
he  was  desperately  wounded  and  his  steed,  being  pierced  by  a 
lance,  sank  to  the  ground.  The  Christians,  admiring  the  valor  of 
the  Moor,  would  have  spared  his  life;  but  he  continued  to  fight 
upon  his  knees,  brandishing  a  keen  dagger  of  Fez,  Finding  at 
length  he  could  no  longer  battle,  and  determined  not  to  be  taken 
prisoner,  he  threw  himself,  with  an  expiring  exertion,  into  the 
Xenil,  and  his  armor  sank  him  to  the  bottom  of  the  stream. 

"This  unknown  warrior  the  venerable  Agapida  pronounces  to 
nave  been  Muza  ben  Abel  Gazan,  and  says  his  horse  was  recog- 
nized by  certain  converted  Moors  of  the  Christian  camp :  the  fact, 
however,  has  always  remained  in  doubt. 

"The  capitulation  for  the  surrender  of  Granada  was  signed  on 
the  25th  of  November,  1491,  and  produced  a  sudden  cessation  of 
those  hostilities  which  had  raged  for  so  many  years.  Christian 
and  Moor  might  now  be  seen  mingling  courteously  on  the  banks 


THE   FALL    OF   GRANADA  351 

of  the  Xenil  and  the  Darro,  where  to  have  met  a  few  days  previ- 
ous would  have  produced  a  scene  of  sanguinary  contest.  Still,  as 
the  Moors  might  be  suddenly  aroused  to  defense,  if,  within  the 
allotted  term  of  seventy  days,  succors  should  arrive  from  abroad; 
and  as  they  were  at  all  times  a  rash,  inflammable  people,  the  wary 
Ferdinand  maintained  a  vigilant  watch  upon  the  city,  and  per- 
mitted no  supplies  of  any  kind  to  enter.  His  garrisons  in  the  sea- 
ports, and  his  cruisers  in  the  Straits  of  Gibraltar,  were  ordered 
like^vise  to  guard  against  any  relief  from  the  grand  soldan  of 
Egypt,  or  the  princes  of  Barbary.  There  was  no  need  of  such 
precautions.  Those  powers  were  either  too  much  engrossed  by 
their  own  wars,  or  too  much  daunted  by  the  success  of  the  Span- 
ish arms,  to  interfere  in  a  desperate  cause;  and  the  unfortunate 
Mooi*s  of  Granada  were  abandoned  to  their  fate. 

"The  month  of  Decfember  had  nearly  passed  away;  the  famine 
became  extreme,  and  there  was  no  hope  of  any  favorable  event 
within  the  term  specified  in  the  capitulation.  BoabdU  saw  that  to 
hold  out  to  the  end  of  the  allotted  time  would  but  be  to  protract 
the  miseries  of  his  people.  With  the  consent  of  his  council,  he 
determined  to  surrender  the  city  on  the  6th  of  January.  On  the 
30th  of  December  he  &ent  his  grand  vizier,  Yusef  Aben  Comixa, 
with  the  four  hundred  hostages,  to  King  Ferdinand,  to  make 
known  his  intention ;  bearing  him,  at  the  same  time,  a  present  of 
a  magnificent  scimiter,  and  two  Arabian  steeds  superbly  capari- 
soned, 

'The  unfortunate  Boabdil  was  doomed  to  meet  with  trouble  to 
the  end  of  his  career.  The  very  next  dsij,  the  santon  or  der\ise 
Hamet  Aben  Zarrax,  the  same  who  had  uttered  prophecies  and 
excited  commotions  on  former  occasions,  suddenly  made  his  ap- 
pearance. "Whence  he  came  no  one  knew;  it  was  rumored  that 
he  had  been  in  the  mountains  of  the  Alpuxan-as,  and  on  the  coast 
of  Barbary,  endeavoring  to  rouse  the  Moslems  to  the  relief  of 
Granada.  He  was  reduced  to  a  skeleton;  his  eyes  glowed  like 
coals  in  their  sockets,  and  his  speech  was  little  better  than  frantic 
raving.  He  harangued  the  populace  in  the  streets  and  squares; 
inveighed  against  the  capitulation,  denounced  the  king  and  nobles 
as  Moslems  only  in  name,  and  called  upon  the  people  to  sally  forth 


352  GREAT    BATTLES    OF   ALL    NATIONS 

against  the  unbelievers,  for  that  Allah  had  decreed  them  a  signal 
victory. 

"Upward  of  twenty  thousand  of  the  populace  seized  their  arms 
and  paraded  the  streets  with  shouts  and  outcries.  The  shops  and 
nouses  were  shut  up ;  the  king  himself  did  not  dare  to  venture  forth, 
but  remained  a  kind  of  prisoner  in  the  Alhambra. 

"The  turbulent  multitude  continued  roaming  and  shouting  and 
howling  about  the  city,  during  the  daj^  and  a  part  of  the  night. 
Hunger,  and  a  wintry  tempest,  tamed  their  frenzy;  and  when 
morning  came,  the  enthusiast  who  had  led  them  on  had  disap- 
peared. Whether  he  had  been  disposed  of  by  the  emissaries  of 
the  king,  or  by  the  leading  men  of  the  city,  is  not  known:  his 
disappearance  remains  a  mystery. 

"The  Moorish  king  now  issued  from  the  Alliambra,  attended  by 
his  principal  nobles,  and  harangued  the  populace.  He  set  forth  the 
necessity  of  complying  with  the  capitulation,  from  the  famine  that 
reigned  in  the  city,  the  futilit}-  of  defense,  and  from  the  hostages 
having  already  been  deHvered  into  the  hands  of  the  besiegers. 

"In  the  dejection  of  his  spirits,  the  unfortunate  Boabdil  at- 
ti'ibuted  to  himself  the  miseries  of  the  country.  'It  was  my  crime 
in  ascending  the  throne  in  rebelhon  against  my  father,'  said  he, 
mournfully,  'which  has  brought  these  woes  upon  the  kingdom; 
but  Allah  has  grievously  visited  my  sins  upon  my  head.  For 
your  sake,  my  people,  I  have  now  made  this  treaty,  to  protect  you 
from  the  sword,  your  Uttle  ones  from  famine,  your  wives  and 
daughters  from  the  outrages  of  war;  and  to  secure  you  in  the 
enjoyment  of  your  properties,  your  liberties,  j^our  laws  and  your 
religion,  under  a  sovereign  of  happier  destinies  than  the  ill-starred 
Boabdil.' 

"The  versatile  population  were  touched  by  the  hiunility  of  their 
sovereign — they  agreed  to  adhere  to  the  capitulation,  and  there 
was  even  a  faint  shout  of  'Long  live  Boabdil  the  unfortunate!' 
and  they  all  returned  to  their  homes  in  perfect  tranquillity. 

"Boabdil  immediately  sent  missives  to  King  Ferdinand,  appris- 
ing him  of  these  events,  and  of  his  fears  lest  further  delay  should 
produce  new  tumults.  He  proposed,  therefore,  to  surrender  the 
city  on  the  following  day.     The  Castilian  sovereigns  assented  with 


THE   FALL    OF   GRANADA  353 

great  satisfaction;  and  preparations  were  made  in  city  and  camp 
for  this  gi-eat  event,  that  was  to  seal  the  fate  of  Granada. 

"It  was  a  night  of  doleful  lamentings  within  the  walls  of  the 
Alhambra;  for  the  household  of  Boabdil  were  preparing  to  take 
a  last  farewell  of  that  delightful  abode.  All  the  royal  treasures, 
and  the  most  precious  effects  of  the  Alhambra,  were  hastily  packed 
upon  mules;  the  beautiful  apartments  were  despoiled,  with  tears 
and  waiHngs,  by  their  own  inhabitants.  Before  the  dawn  of  day, 
a  mouinful  cavalcade  moved  obscurely  out  of  a  postern-gate  of 
the  Alhambra,  and  departed  through  one  of  the  most  retired 
quarters  of  the  city.  It  was  composed  of  the  family  of  the  un- 
fortunate Boabdil,  which  he  sent  off  thus  privately  that  they 
might  not  be  exposed  to  the  eyes  of  scoffers  or  the  exultation  of 
the  enemy.  The  mother  of  Boabdil,  the  sultana  Ayxa  la  Horra, 
rode  on  in  silence,  with  dejected  yet  dignified  demeanor;  but  his 
wife  Zorayma,  and  all  the  females  of  his  household,  gave  way  to 
loud  lamentations,  as  they  looked  back  upon  their  favorite  abode, 
now  a  mass  of  gloomy  towers  behind  them.  They  were  attended 
by  the  ancient  domestics  of  the  household,  and  by  a  small  guard 
of  veteran  Moors,  loyally  attached  to  the  fallen  monarch,  and  who 
would  have  sold  their  lives  dearly  in  defense  of  his  family.  The 
city  was  yet  buried  in  sleep  as  they  passed  through  its  silent 
streets.  The  guards  at  the  gate  shed  tears  as  they  opened  it 
for  their  departure.  They  paused  not,  but  proceeded  along  the 
banks  of  the  Xenil  on  the  road  that  leads  to  the  Alpuxarras, 
until  they  arrived  at  a  hamlet  at  some  distance  from  the  city, 
where  they  halted,  and  waited  until  they  should  be  joined  b}' 
King  Boabdil. 

"The  sun  had  scarcely  begun  to  shed  his  beams  upon  the  sum- 
mits of  the  snowy  mountains  which  rise  above  Granada  when  the 
Christian  camp  was  in  motion.  A  detachment  of  horse  and  foot, 
led  by  distinguished  cavaliers,  and  accompained  by  Hernando  de 
Talavera,  bishop  of  Avila,  proceeded  to  take  possession  of  the 
Alhambra  and  the  towers.  It  had  been  stipulated  in  the  capitu- 
lation that  the  detachment  sent  for  this  purpose  should  not  enter 
by  the  streets  of  the  city ;  a  road  had  therefore  been  opened,  out- 
side of  the  walls,  leading  by  the  Puerta  de  los  Molinos,   or  the 

Lr-VOL.  I. 


354  GREAT   BATTLES   OF   ALL   NATIONS 

Gate  of  the  Mills,  to  the  stunmit  of  the  Hill  of  Martyrs,  and  across 
the  hill  to  a  postern-gate  of  the  Alhambra. 

"When  the  detachment  arrived  at  the  summit  of  the  hill,  the 
Moorish  king  came  forth  from  the  gate,  attended  by  a  handful  of 
cavahers,  leaving  his  vizier  Yusef  Aben  Comixa  to  dehver  up  the 
palace.  'Go,  senior,'  said  he  to  the  commander  of  the  detach- 
ment, 'go  and  take  possession  of  those  fortresses,  which  Allah  has 
bestowed  upon  your  powerful  sovereigns,  in  punishment  of  the  sins 
of  the  Moors. '  He  said  no  more,  but  passed  mournfully  on,  along 
the  same  road  by  which  the  Spanish  cavaliers  had  come ;  descend- 
ing to  the  vega,  to  meet  the  Cathohc  sovereigns.  The  troops 
entered  the  Alhambra,  the  gates  of  which  were  wide  open,  and  all 
its  splendid  courts  and  halls  silent  and  deserted. 

"In  the  meantime,  the  Christian  court  and  army  poured  out  of 
the  city  of  Santa  Fe,  and  advanced  across  the  vega.  The  king 
and  queen,  with  the  prince  and  prmcess,  and  the  dignitaries  and 
ladies  of  the  court,  took  the  lead,  accompanied  by  the  different 
orders  of  monks  and  friars,  and  surrounded  by  the  royal  guards 
splendidly  arrayed.  The  procession  moved  slowly  forward,  and 
paused  at  the  village  of  Armilla,  at  the  distance  of  half  a  league 
from  the  city. 

"The  sovereigns  waited  here  with  impatience,  their  eyes  fixed 
on  the  lofty  tower  of  the  Alhambra,  watching  for  the  appointed 
signal  of  possession.  The  time  that  had  elapsed  since  the  depart- 
ure of  the  detachment  seemed  to  them  more  than  necessary  for  the 
purpose,  and  the  anxious  mind  of  Ferdinand  began  to  entertain 
doubts  of  some  commotion  in  the  city.  At  length  they  saw  the 
silver  cross,  the  great  standard  of  this  crusade,  elevated  on  the 
Torre  de  la  Vala,  or  Great  Watch-Tower,  and  sparkling  in  the 
sunbeams.  '  This  was  done  by  Hernando  de  Talavera,  bishop  of 
Avila.  Beside  it  was  planted  the  pennon  of  the  glorious  apostle 
St.  James,  and  a  griat  shout  of  'Santiago!  Santiago!'  rose  through- 
out the  army.  Lastly  was  reared  the  royal  standard  by  the  king 
of  arms,  with  the  shout  of  '  Castile !  Castile !  For  King  Ferdinand 
and  Queen  Isabella!'  The  words  were  echoed  by  the  whole  army, 
with  acclamations  that  resounded  across  the  vega.  At  sight  of 
these  signals  of  possession  the  sovereigns  sank  upon  their  knees, 


THH    FALL    OF    GRANADA 


:>:>:> 


giving  thanks  to  God  for  this  great  triumph ;  the  whole  assembled 
host  followed  their  example,  and  the  choristers  of  the  royal  chapel 
broke  forth  into  the  solemn  anthem  of  '  Te  Deum  laudamus. ' 

"The  procession  now  resumed  its  march  with  joyful  alacrity,  to 
the  somid  of  triumphant  music,  until  they  came  to  a  small  mosque 
near  the  banks  of  the  Xenil,  and  not  far  from  the  foot  of  the  Hill 
of  Martyrs,  which  edifice  remains  to  the  present  day,  consecrated 
as  the  hermitage  of  St.  Sebastian.  Here  the  sovereigns  were  met 
by  the  unfortunate  Boabdil,  accompanied  by  about  fifty  cavaliers 
and  domestics.  As  he  drew  near,  he  would  have  dismoimted  in 
token  of  homage,  but  Ferdinand  prevented  him.  He  then  prof- 
fered to  kiss  the  king's  hand,  but  this  sign  of  vassalage  was  like- 
wise dechned;  whereupon,  not  to  be  outdone  in  magnanimity,  he 
leaned  forward  and  kissed  the  right  arm  of  Ferdinand.  Queen 
Isabella  also  refused  to  receive  this  ceremonial  of  homage,  and,  to 
console  him  luider  his  adversity,  delivered  to  him  his  son,  who  had 
remained  as  hostage  ever  since  Boabdil's  hberation  from  captivity. 
The  Moorish  monarch  pressed  his  child  to  his  bosom  with  tender 
emotion,  and  they  seemed  mutually  endeared  to  each  other  by 
their  misfortunes. 

"He  then  deUvered  the  keys  of  the  city  to  King  Ferdinand, 
with  an  air  of  mingled  melancholy  and  resignation:  'These  keys,' 
said  he,  'are  the  last  relics  of  the  Arabian  empire  in  Spain:  thine, 
oh  king,  are  our  trophies,  our  kingdom,  and  our  person.  Such  is 
the  will  of  God !  Receive  them  with  the  clemency  thou  hast  prom- 
ised, and  which  we  look  for  at  thy  hands. ' 

"King  Ferdinand  restrained  his  exultation  into  an  air  of  serene 
magnanimity.  'Doubt  not  our  promises,'  replied  he,  'nor  that  thou 
shalt  regain  from  our  friendship  the  prosperity  of  which  the  fortune 
of  war  has  deprived  thee. ' 

"On  receiving  the  keys.  King  Ferdinand  handed  them  to  the 
queen;  she  in  her  turn  presented  them  to  her  son  Prince  Juan, 
who  delivered  them  to  the  Count  de  Tendilla,  that  brave  and  loyal 
cavalier  being  appointed  alcayde  of  the  city  and  captain-general 
of  the  kingdom  of  Granada. 

"Having  surrendered  the  last  symbol  of  power,  the  unfortunate 
Boabdil  continued  on  toward  the  Alpuxarras,  that  he  might  not  be- 


356  GREAT    BATTLES    OF   ALL    NATIONS 

hold  the  entrance  of  the  Christians  into  his  capitaL  His  devoted 
];and  of  cavaliers  followed  him  in  gloomy  silence ;  but  heavy  signs 
burst  from  their  bosoms,  as  shouts  of  joy  and  strains  of  triumphant 
music  were  borne  on  the  breeze  from  the  victorious  army. 

"Having  rejoined  his  family,  Boabdil  set  forward  with  a  heavy 
heart  for  his  allotted  residence  in  the  valley  of  Purchena.  At  two 
leagues'  distance  the  cavalcade,  winding  into  the  skirts  of  the 
Alpuxarras,  ascended  an  eminence  commanding  the  last  view  of 
Granada.  As  they  arrived  at  this  spot,  the  Moors  paused  involun- 
tarily, to  take  a  farewell  gaze  at  their  beloved  citj',  which  a  fen- 
steps  more  would  shut  from  their  sight  forever.  Never  had  it 
appeared  so  lovely  in  their  eyes.  The  sunshine,  so  bright  in  that 
transparent  climate,  lighted  up  each  tower  and  minaret,  and  rested 
gloriously'  upon  the  crowning  battlements  of  the  Alhambra;  while 
the  vega  spread  its  enameled  bosom  of  verdure  below,  glistening 
with  the  silver  windings  of  the  Xenil.  The  Moorish  cavaliers 
gazed  with  a  silent  agony  of  tenderness  and  grief  upon  that  de- 
hcious  abode,  the  scene  of  their  loves  and  pleasures.  While  the}- 
yet  looked,  a  light  cloud  of  smoke  burst  forth  from  the  citadel,  and 
presently  a  peal  of  artiller}-,  faintly  heard,  told  that  the  city  was 
taken  possession  of,  and  the  throne  of  the  Moslem  kings  was  lost 
forever.  The  heart  of  Boabdil,  softened  by  misfortunes  and  over- 
charged with  grief,  could  no  longer  contain  itself:  'Allah  Achbar! 
God  is  great!'  said  he;  but  the  words  of  resignation  died  upon  his 
lips,  and  he  burst  into  a  flood  of  tears. 

"His  mother,  the  intrepid  Sultana  Ayxa  la  Horra,  was  indig- 
nant at  his  weakness:  'You  do  well,'  said  she,  'to  weep  like  a 
woman  for  what  you  failed  to  defend  like  a  man!' 

"The  vizier  Aben  Comixa  endeavored  to  console  his  roj'-al  mas- 
ter. 'Consider,  sire,'  said  he,  'that  the  most  signal  misfortunes 
often  render  imn  as  renowned  as  the  most  prosperous  achieve- 
ments, provided  they  sustain  them  with  magnanimity.' 

"The  unhappy  monarch,  however,  was  not  to  be  consoled;  his 
tears  continued  to  flow.  'Allah  Achbar!'  exclaimed  he;  'when 
(lid  misfortunes  ever  equal  mine?' 

"From  this  circumstance,  the  hill,  which  is  not  far  from  the 
Padul,  took  the  name  of  Feg  Allah  Achbar :  but  the  point  of  view 


THE    FALL    OF    GRANADA  357 

commanding  the  last  prospect  of  Granada  is  known  among  Span- 
iards by  the  name  of  El  ultimo  suspiro  del  Moro;  or,  "The  last 
sigh  of  the  Moor." 

"When  the  Castihan  sovereigns  had  received  the  keys  of  Gra- 
nada from  the  hands  of  Boabdil  el  Chico,  the  royal  army  resmned 
its  triumphant  march.  As  it  approached  the  gates  of  the  citj%  in 
all  the  pomp  of  courtly  and  chivalrous  array,  a  procession  of  a 
different  kind  came  forth  to  meet  it.  This  was  composed  of  more 
than  five  hundred  Christian  captives,  many  of  whom  had  lan- 
guished for  years  in  Moorish  dungeons.  Pale  and  emaciated,  they 
came  clanking  their  chains  in  triumph  and  shedding  tears  of  joy. 
They  were  received  with  tenderness  by  the  sovereigns.  The  king 
hailed  them  as  good  Spaniards,  as  men  loyal  and  brave,  as  martyrs 
to  the  holy  cause ;  the  queen  distributed  liberal  relief  among  them 
^vith  her  ovro.  hands,  and  they  passed  on  before  the  squadrons  of 
the  army,  singing  hymns  of  jubilee. 

"The  sovereigns  did  not  enter  the  city  on  this  day  of  its  sm-ren- 
der,  but  waited  until  it  should  be  fully  occupied  by  their  troops, 
and  public  tranquilUty  insured.  The  Marques  de  Yillena,  and  the 
Count  de  Tendilla,  wiih.  three  thousand  cavalry  and  as  many  infan- 
try, marched  in  and  took  possession,  accompanied  by  the  proselyte 
Prince  Cidi  Yahye,  now  known  by  the  Christian  appellation  of 
Don  Pedro  de  Granada,  who  was  appointed  chief  alguazil  of  the 
city,  and  had  charge  of  the  Moorish  inhabitants,  and  by  his  son, 
the  late  Prince  Alnayar,  now  Don  Alonzo  de  Granada,  who  was 
appointed  admiral  of  the  fleets.  In  a  Httle  while,  every  battlement 
glistened  with  Christian  helms  and  lances,  the  standard  of  the  faith 
and  of  the  realm  floated  from  every  tower,  and  the  thundering 
salvos  of  the  ordnance  told  that  the  subjugation  of  the  city  was 
complete. 

"The  grandees  and  cavaHers  now  knelt  and  kissed  the  hands 
of  the  king  and  queen  and  the  Prince  Juan,  and  congratulated 
them  on  the  acquisition  of  so  great  a  kingdom ;  after  which,  the 
royal  procession  returned  in  state  to  Santa  Fe. 

"It  was  on  the  sixth  of  January,  the  day  of  kings  and  festival 
of  the  Epiphany,  that  the  sovereigns  made  their  triumphal  entry. 
The  king  and   queen    (says  the  worthy  Fray  Antonio  Agapida) 


358       GREAT  BATTLES  OF  ALL  NATIONS 

looked  on  this  occasion  as  more  than  mortal :  the  venerable  eccle- 
siastics, to  whose  advice  and  zeal  this  glorious  conquest  ought  in  a 
great  measure  to  be  attributed,  moved  along  with  hearts  swelling 
with  holy  exultation,  but  with  chastened  and  downcast  looks  of 
edifying  humility;  while  the  hardy  warriors,  in  tossing  plumes 
and  shining  steel,  seemed  elevated  with  a  stern  joy  at  finding 
themselves  in  possession  of  this  object  of  so  many  toils  and  perils. 
As  the  streets  resounded  with  the  tramp  of  steed  and  swelhng  peals 
of  music,  the  Moors  buried  themselves  in  the  deepest  recesses  of 
their  dwellings.  There  they  bewailed  in  secret  the  fallen  glory 
of  their  race,  but  suppressed  their  groans,  lest  they  should  be  heard 
by  their  enemies  and  increase  their  triumph. 

"The  royal  procession  advanced  to  the  principal  mosque,  which 
had  been  consecrated  as  a  cathedral.  Here  the  sovereigns  offered 
up  prayers  and  thanksgivings,  and  the  choir  of  the  royal  chapel 
chanted  a  triumphant  anthem,  in  which  they  were  joined  by  all 
the  courtiers  and  cavaliers.  Nothing  (says  Fray  Antonio  Agapida) 
could  exceed  the  thankfulness  to  God  of  the  pious  King  Ferdinand, 
for  having  enabled  him  to  eradicate  from  Spain  the  empire  and 
name  of  that  accursed  heathen  race,  and  for  the  elevation  of  the 
cross  in  that  city  wherein  the  impious  doctrines  of  Mohammed  had 
so  long  been  cherished.  In  the  fervor  of  his  spirit,  he  supphcated 
from  Heaven  a  continuance  of  its  grace,  and  that  this  glorious 
triumph  might  be  perpetuated.  The  prayer  of  the  pious  monarch 
was  responded  by  the  people,  and  even  his  enemies  were  for  once 
convinced  of  his  sincerity. 

"When  the  religious  ceremonies  were  concluded,  the  court 
ascended  to  the  stately  palace  of  the  Alhambra,  and  entered  by 
the  great  gate  of  Justice.  The  halls  lately  occupied  by  turbaned 
Infidels  now  rustled  with  stately  dames  and  Christian  courtiers, 
who  wandered  with  eager  curiositj^  over  this  far-famed  palace, 
admiring  its  verdant  courts  and  gushing  fountains,  its  halls  deco- 
rated with  elegant  arabesques  and  storied  with  inscriptions,  and 
the  splendor  of  its  gilded  and  brilliantly  painted  ceilings. 

"It  had  been  a  last  request  of  the  unfortunate  Boabdil,  and  one 
which  showed  how  deeply  he  felt  the  transition  of  his  fate,  that  no 
person  might  be  permitted  to  enter  or  depart  I)y  the  gate  of  the 


THE   FALL    OF   GRANADA  359 

Alhambra  through  which  he  had  salHed  forth  to  surrender  his 
capitaL  His  request  was  granted ;  the  portal  was  closed  up,  and 
remains  so  to  the  present  day — a  mute  memorial  of  that  event. 

"The  Spanish  sovereigns  fixed  their  throne  in  the  presence- 
chamber  of  the  palace,  so  long  the  seat  of  Moorish  royalty.  Hither 
the  principal  inhabitants  of  Granada  repaired,  to  pay  them  homage 
and  kiss  their  hands  in  token  of  vassalage;  and  their  example  was 
followed  by  deputies  from  all  the  towns  and  fortresses  of  the  Al- 
puxarras,  which  had  not  hitherto  submitted. 

"Thus  terminated  the  war  of  Granada,  after  ten  years  of  inces- 
sant fighting ;  equaling  (says  Fray  Antonio  Agapida)  the  far-famed 
siege  of  Troy  in  duration,  and  ending,  like  that,  in  the  capture  of 
the  city.  Thus  ended  also  the  dominion  of  the  Moors  in  Spain, 
having  endured  seven  hundred  and  seventy-eight  years,  from  the 
memorable  defeat  of  Roderick,  the  last  of  the  Goths,  on  the  banks 
of  the  Guadalete.  The  authentic  Agapida  is  uncommonly  particu- 
lar in  fixing  the  epoch  of  this  event.  This  great  triumph  of  our 
holy  Catholic  faith,  according  to  his  computation,  took  place  in 
the  beginning  of  January,  in  the  j^ear  of  Our  Lord  1492,  being 
3,655  years  from  the  population  of  Spain  by  the  patriarch  Tubal; 
3,797  from  the  general  deluge;  5,453  from  the  creation  of  the 
world,  according  to  Hebrew  calculation ;  and  in  the  month  Rabic, 
in  the  eight  hundred  and  ninety-seventh  year  of  the  Hegira,  or 
flight  of  Mohammed,  whom  may  God  confound!  saith  the  pious 
Agapida." 


CHAPTER  XV 
THE    SPANISH   ARMADA   AND    ITS   DEFEAT 

THE  GREAT  NAVAL  BATTLE   BETWEEN   ENGLAND  AND  SPAIN 

A.  D.   1588 

ATTEND,  all  ye  who  list  to  hear  om*  noble  England's  praise; 
I  tell  of  the  thrice  famous  deeds  she  wrought  in  ancient 
days, 
When  that  great  fleet  invincible  against  her  bore  in  vain 
The  richest  spoils  of  Mexico,  the  stoutest  hearts  of  Spain. 

It  was  about  the  lovely  close  of  a  warm  summer  day, 
There  came  a  gallant  merchant-ship  fuU  sail  to  Plymouth  Bay; 
Her  crew  hath  seen  Castile's  black  fleet,  beyond  Aurigny's  isle, 
At  earliest  twilight,  on  the  waves  lie  heaving  many  a  mile. 
At  sunrise  she  escaped  their  van,  by  God's  especial  grace; 
And  the  tall  Pinta,  till  the  noon,  had  held  her  close  in  chase. 
Forthwith  a  guard  at  every  gun  was  placed  along  the  wall; 
The  beacon  blazed  upon  the  roof  of  Edgecimabe's  lofty  hall; 
Many  a  hght  fishing-bark  put  out  to  pry  along  the  coast, 
And  with  loose  rein  and  bloody  spur  rode  inland  many  a  post. 
With  his  white  hair  unbonneted,  the  stout  old  sheriff  comes ; 
Behind  him  march  the  halberdiers ;  before  him  sound  the  drums ; 
His  yeomen  round  the  market  cross  make  clear  an  ample  space ; 
For  there  behoves  him  to  set  up  the  standard  of  Her  Grace. 
And  haughtily  the  trumpets  peal,  and  gayly  dance  the  bells, 
As  slow  upon  the  laboring  wind  the  royal  blazon  swells. 
Look  how  the  Lion  of  the  sea  Hfts  up  his  ancient  crown, 
And  underneath  his  deadly  paw  treads  the  gay  lilies  down. 
So  stalked  he  when  he  turned  to  flight,  on  that  famed  Picard  field, 
Bohemia's  plume,  and  Genoa's  bow,  and  Caesar's  eagle  shield. 
(260) 


THE   SPANISH    ARMADA    AND    ITS    DEFEAT  361 

So  glared  he  when  at  Agincourt  in  wrath  he  turned  to  bay, 

And  crushed  and  torn  beneath  his  claws  the  princely  hunters  lay. 

Ho !   strike  the  Hagstaflf  deep,  sir  Knight :  ho !   scatter  flowers,  fair 

maids : 
Ho !  gunners,  tire  a  loud  salute :  ho !  gallants,  draw  your  blades : 
Thou  sun,  shine  on  her  joyously ;  ye  breezes,  waft  her  wide ; 
()ur  glorious  semper  eadem,  the  banner  of  our  pride. 

The  freshening  breeze  of  eve  unfurled  that  banner's  massy  fold ; 
The  parting  gleam  of  sunshine  kissed  that  haughty  scroll  of  gold; 
Night  sank  upon  the  dusky  beach,  and  on  the  purple  sea, 
Such  night  in  England  ne'er  had  been,  nor  e'er  again  shall  be. 
From  Eddystone  to  Berwick  bounds,  from  Lynn  to  Milford  Bay, 
That  time  of  slumber  was  as  bright  and  busy  as  the  day ; 
For  swift  to  east  and  swift  to  west  the  ghastly  war-flame  spread, 
High  on  St.  Michael's  Mount  it  shone :   it  shone  on  Beachy  Head. 
Far  on  the  deep  the  Spaniard  saw,  along  each  southern  shire, 
Cape  beyond  cape,  in  endless  range,  those  twinkling  points  of  fire. 
The  fisher  left  his  skiff  to  rock  on  Tamar's  glittering  waves : 
The  rugged  miners  poured  to  war  from  Mendip's  sunless  caves : 
O'er  Longleat's  towers,  o'er  Cranboume's  oaks,  the  fiery  herald 

flew: 
He  roused  the  shepherds  of  Stonehenge,  the  rangers  of  Beaulieu. 
Right  sharp  and  quick  the  bells  all  night  rang  out  from  Bristol  town, 
And  ere  the  day  three  hundred  horse  had  met  on  Clifton  down; 
The  sentinel  on  Whitehall  gate  looked  forth  into  the  night. 
And  saw  o'erhanging  Richmond  Hill  the  streak  of  blood-red  light. 
Then  bugle's  note  and  cannon's  roar  the  deathlike  silence  broke. 
And  with  one  start,  and  with  one  cry,  the  royal  city  woke. 
At  once  on  all  her  stately  gates  arose  the  answering  fires; 
At  once  the  wild  alarum  clashed  from  all  her  reeling  spires ; 
From  all  the  batteries  of  the  Tower  pealed  loud  the  voice  of  fear; 
And  all  the  thousand  masts  of  Thames  sent  back  a  louder  cheer: 
And  from  the  furthest  wards  was  heard  the  rush  of  hurrjdng  feet. 
And  the  broad  streams  of  pikes  and  flags  rushed  down  each  roaring 

street; 
And  broader  still  became  the  blaze,  and  louder  still  the  din. 
As  fast  from  every  village  round  the  horee  came  spurring  in: 


362  GREAT   BATTLES   OF   ALL   NATIONS 

And  eastward  straight  from  wild  Blackheath  the  warlike  errand 

went, 
And  roused  in  manj'  an  ancient  hall  the  gallant  squires  of  Kent. 
Southward  from  Surrey's  pleasant  hills  flew  those  bright  couriers 

forth; 
High  on  bleak  Hampstead's  swarth}-  moor  they  started   for  the 

north ; 
And  on,  and  on,  without  a  pause  untired  they  bounded  still : 
i\ll  night  from  tower  to  tower  they  sprang;  they  sprang  from  hill 

tohiU: 
Till  the  proud  peak  unfurled  the  flag  o'er  Darwin's  rocky  dales, 
Till  like  volcanoes  flared  to  heaven  the  stormy  hills  of  Wales, 
Till  twelve  fair  counties  saw  the  blaze  on  Malvern's  lonely  height, 
Till  streamed  in  crimson  on  the  wind  the  AVrekin's  crest  of  light. 
Till  broad  and  fierce  the  star  came  forth  on  Ely's  stately  fane, 
And  tower  and  hamlet  rose  in  arms  o'er  all  the  boundless  plain; 
Till  B  el  voir 's  lordly  terraces  the  sign  to  Lincoln  sent, 
And  Lincoln  sped  the  message  on  o'er  the  wide  vale  of  Trent; 
Till  Skiddaw  saAV  the  fire  that  burnt  on  Gaunt's  embattled  pile, 
And  the  red  glare  on  Skiddaw  roused  the  burghers  of  Carlisle. 

— Macaulay. 


Spain  for  a  -ong  time  has  been  so  impotent,  and  England  so 
powerful,  that  it  is  not  easy,  without  some  reflection  and  care,  to 
comprehend  the  fiill  extent  of  the  peril  which  England  then  ran 
from  the  power  and  the  ambition  of  Spain,  or  to  appreciate  the 
importance  of  that  crisis  in  the  history  of  the  world.  England 
had  then  no  Indian  or  colonial'  empire,  save  the  feeble  germs  of 
the  North  American  settlements,  which  Raleigh  and  Gilbert  had 
recently  planted.  Scotland  was  a  separate  kingdom;  and  Ireland 
was  then  even  a  greater  source  of  weakness  and  a  worse  nest  of 
rebeUion  than  she  became  in  after  times.  Queen  EUzabeth  had 
found  at  her  accession  an  encumbered  revenue,  a  divided  people, 
and  an  unsuccessful  foreign  war,  in  which  the  last  remnant  of  the 
possessions  in  France  had  been  lost ;  she  had  also  a  formidable  pre- 
tender to  her  crown,  whose  interests  were  favored  b}*  all  the  Roman 
Catholic  powers;   and  even  some  of  her  subjects  were  warped  by 


THE   SPAiNISH    ARMADA    AND    ITS   DEFEAT  363 

religious  bigotry  to  deny  her  title  and  to  look  on  her  as  a  heretical 
usurper.  It  is  true  that,  during  the  years  of  her  reign  which  had 
passed  awaj^  before  the  attempted  inv^asion  of  1588,  she  had  revived 
the  commercial  prosperity,  the  national  spirit,  and  the  national  loy- 
alty of  England.  But  her  resources  to  cope  with  the  colossal  power 
of  Philip  11.  still  seemed  most  scanty;  and  she  had  not  a  single 
foreign  ally,  except  the  Dutch,  who  were  themselves  struggling 
hard,  and,  as  it  seemed,  hopelessly,  to  maintain  their  revolt  against 
Spain. 

On  the  other  hand,  Phihp  II,  was  absolute  master  of  an  empire 
so  superior  to  the  other  states  of  the  world  in  eztent,  in  resources, 
and  especially  in  military  and  naval  forces,  as  to  make  the  project 
of  enlarging  that  empire  into  a  universal  monarchy  seem  a  per- 
fectly feasible  scheme ;  and  Philip  had  both  the  ambition  to  form 
that  project  and  the  resolution  to  devote  all  his  energies  and  all 
his  means  to  its  realization.  Since  the  downfall  of  the  Roman 
empire,  no  such  preponderating  power  had  existed  in  the  world. 
During  the  medieval  centuries  the  chief  European  kingdoms  were 
slowly  molding  themselves  out  of  the  feudal  chaos ;  and  though 
the  wars  with  each  other  were  numerous  and  desperate,  and  sev- 
eral of  their  respective  kings  figured  for  a  time  as  mighty  conquer- 
ors, none  of  them  in  those  times  acquired  the  consistency  and  per- 
fect organization  which  are  requisite  for  a  long-sustained  career  of 
aggrandizement.  After  the  consolidation  of  the  great  kingdoms, 
they  for  some  time  kept  each  other  in  mutual  check.  During  the 
first  half  of  the  sixteenth  century,  the  balancing  system  was  suc- 
cessfully practiced  by  European  statesmen.  But  when  Philip  II, 
reigned,  France  had  become  so  miserably  weak  through  her  civil 
wars  that  he  had  nothing  to  dread  from  the  rival  state  which  had 
so  long  curbed  his  father,  the  Emperor  Charles  V.  In  Germany, 
Italy  and  Poland  he  had  either  zealous  friends  and  dependents, 
or  weak  and  di^^ded  enemies.  Against  the  Turks  he  had  gained 
great  and  glorious  successes;  and  he  might  look  round  the  conti- 
nent of  Europe  without  discerning  a  single  antagonist  of  whom 
he  could  stand  in  awe.  Spain,  when  he  acceded  to  the  throne, 
was  at  the  zenith  of  her  power.  The  hardihood  and  spirit  which 
the  Aragonese,  the  Castilians,  and  the  other  nations  of  the  Penin- 


364  GREAT   BATTLES   OF   ALL   NATIONS 

siila  had  acquired  during  centuries  of  free  institutions  and  success- 
ful war  against  the  Moors,  had  not  yet  become  obHterated.  Charles 
V.  had,  indeed,  destroyed  the  liberties  of  Spain;  but  that  had  been 
done  too  recently  for  its  full  evil  to  be  felt  in  Philip's  time.  A 
people  cannot  be  debased  in  a  single  generation;  and  the  Spaniards 
under  Charles  V.  and  Philip  11.  proved  the  truth  of  the  remark 
that  no  nation  is  ever  so  formidable  to  its  neighbors,  for  a  time,  as 
a  nation  which,  after  being  trained  up  in  self-government,  passes 
suddenly  under  a  despotic  ruler.  The  energy  of  democratic  insti- 
tutions survives  for  a  few  generations,  and  to  it  are  superadded 
the  decisiop  and  certainty  which  are  the  attributes  of  government 
when  all  its  powers  are  directed  by  a  single  mind.  It  is  true  that 
this  preternatural  vigor  is  short-lived :  national  corruption  and  de- 
basement gradually  follow  the  loss  of  the  national  liberties;  but 
there  is  an  interval  before  their  workings  are  felt,  and  in  that  in- 
terval the  most  ambitious  schemes  of  foreign  conquest  are  often 
successfully  undertaken. 

Philip  had  also  the  advantage  of  finding  himself  at  the  head  of 
a  large  standing  army  in  a  perfect  state  of  discipline  and  equip- 
ment, in  an  age  when,  except  some  few  insignificant  corps,  stand- 
ing armies  were  unknown  in  Christendom.  The  renown  of  the 
Spanish  troops  was  justly  high,  and  the  infantry  in  particular  was 
considered  the  best  in  the  world.  His  fleet,  also,  was  far  more 
numerous  and  better  appointed  than  that  of  any  other  European 
power;  and  both  his  soldiers  and  his  sailors  had  the  confidence 
in  themselves  and  theii  commanders  which  a  long  career  of  suc- 
cessful warfare  alone  can  create. 

Besides  the  Spanish  crown,  Philip  succeeded  to  the  kingdom 
of  Naples  and  Sicily,  the  duchy  of  Milan,  Franche-Compte,  and 
the  Netherlands.  In  Africa  he  possessed  Tunis,  Oran,  the  Cape 
Verde,  and  the  Canary  Islands;  and  in  Asia,  the  Philippine  and 
Sunda  Islands,  and  a  part  of  the  Moluccas.  Beyond  the  Atlantic 
he  was  lord  of  the  most  splendid  portions  of  the  New  World,  which 
Columbus  found  "for  Castile  and  Leon."  The  empires  of  Peru 
and  Mexico,  New  Spain,  and  Cliili,  with  their  abundant  mines  of 
the  precious  metals,  Hisyaniola  and  Cuba,  and  many  other  of  the 
American  islands,  were  provinces  of  the  sovereign  of  Spain. 


THE   SPANISH    ARMADA    AND    ITS    DEFEAT  365 

Philip  had,  indeed,  experienced  the  mortification  of  seeing  the 
inhabitants  of  the  Netherlands  revolt  against  his  authority,  nor 
could  he  succeed  in  bringing  back  beneath  the  Spanish  scepter  all 
the  possessions  which  his  father  had  bequeathed  to  him ;  but  he  had 
reconquered  a  large  number  of  the  towns  and  districts  that  origi- 
nally took  up  arms  against  him.  Belgium  was  brought  more  thor- 
oughly into  implicit  obedience  to  Spain  than  she  had  been  before 
her  insurrection,  and  it  was  only  Holland  and  the  six  other  north- 
em  states  that  still  held  out  against  his  arms.  The  contest  had 
also  formed  a  compact  and  veteran  army  on  PhiUp's  side,  which, 
under  his  great  general,  the  prince  of  Parma,  had  been  trained  to 
act  together  under  all  difficulties  and  all  vicissitudes  of  warfare, 
and  on  whose  steadiness  and  loj'-alty  perfect  reliance  might  be 
placed  throughout  any  enterprise,  however  difficult  and  tedious. 
Alexander  Farnese,  prince  of  Parma,  captain-general  of  the  Span- 
ish armies,  and  governor  of  the  Spanish  possessions  in  the  Nether- 
lands, was  beyond  all  comparison  the  greatest  miUtary  genius  of 
his  age.  He  was  also  highly  distinguished  for  poUtical  wisdom 
and  sagacity,  and  for  his  great  administrative  talents.  He  was 
idolized  by  his  troops,  whose  ajffections  he  knew  how  to  win  with- 
out relaxing  their  discipline  or  diminishing  his  own  authority. 
Pre-eminently  cool  and  circumspect  in  his  plans,  but  swift  and 
energetic  when  the  moment  arrived  for  striking  a  decisive  blow, 
neglecting  no  risk  that  caution  could  provide  against,  conciliating 
even  the  populations  of  the  districts  which  he  attacked  by  his 
scrupulous  good  faith,  his  moderation,  and  his  address,  Farnese 
was  one  of  the  most  formidable  generals  that  ever  could  be  placed 
at  the  head  of  an  army  designed  not  only  to  win  battles,  but  to 
effect  conquests.  Happy  it  is  for  England  and  the  world  that  this 
island  was  saved  from  becoming  an  arena  for  the  exhibition  of 
his  powers. 

Whatever  diminution  the  Spanish  empire  might  have  sustained 
in  the  Netherlands  seemed  to  be  more  than  compensated  by  the 
acquisition  of  Portugal,  which  Philip  had  completely  conquered 
in  1580.  Not  only  that  ancient  kingdom  itself,  but  all  the 
fruits  of  the  maritime  enterprises  of  the»  Portuguese,  had  fallen 
into   Philip's    hands.     All    the   Portuguese   colonies  in   America, 


366  GREAT    BATTLES    OF    ALL    NATIONS 

Africa,  and  the  East  Indies  acknowledged  the  sovereignty  of  the 
king  of  Spain,  who  thus  not  only  united  the  whole  Iberian  penin- 
sula under  his  single  scepter,  but  had  acquired  a  transmarine 
empire  little  inferior  in  wealth  and  extent  to  that  which  he  had 
inherited  at  his  accession.  The  splendid  victory  which  his  fleet, 
in  conjunction  with  the  papal  and  Venetian  galleys,  had  gained 
at  Lepanto  over  the  Turks,  had  deservedly  exalted  the  fame  of 
the  Spanish  marine  throughout  Christendom;  and  when  Philip 
had  reigned  thirty-five  years  the  vigor  of  his  empire  seemed  im- 
broken,  and  the  glory  of  the  Spanish  arms  had  increased  and  w*as 
increasing  throughout  the  world. 

One  nation  only  had  been  his  active,  his  persevering,  and  his 
successful  foe.  England  had  encouraged  his  revolted  subjects  in 
Flanders  against  him,  and  given  them  the  aid  in  men  and  mone}' 
without  which  they  must  soon  have  been  humbled  in  the  dust. 
English  ships  had  plundered  his  colonies ;  had  defied  his  supremacy 
in  the  New  World  as  well  as  the  Old ;  they  had  inflicted  ignomini- 
ous defeats  on  his  squadrons;  they  had  captured  his  cities,  and 
burned  his  arsenals  on  the  very  coasts  of  Spain.  The  Enghsh  had 
made  Philip  himself  the  object  of  personal  insult.  He  was  held 
up  to  ridicule  in  their  stage-plays  and  masks,  and  these  scoffs  at 
the  man  had  (as  is  not  unusual  in  such  cases)  excited  the  anger 
of  the  absolute  king  even  more  vehemently  than  the  injmdes  in- 
flicted on  his  power.  Personal  as  well  as  political  revenge  urged 
him  to  attack  England.  "Were  she  once  subdued,  the  Dutch  must 
submit;  France  could  not  cope  with  him,  the  empire  would  not 
oppose  him ;  and  universal  dominion  seemed  sure  to  be  the  result 
of  the  conquest  of  that  malignant  island. 

There  was  yet  another  and  a  stronger  feeling  which  armed  King 
Philip  against  England.  He  was  one  of  the  sincerest  and  one  of 
the  sternest  bigots  of  his  age.  He  looked  on  himself,  and  was 
looked  on  by  others,  as  the  appointed  champion  to  extirpate  heresy 
and  re-establish  the  papal  power  throughout  Europe.  A  powerful 
reaction  against  Protestantism  had  taken  place  since  the  com- 
mencement of  the  second  half  of  the  sixteenth  centurj',  and  he 
looked  on  himself  as  destined  to  complete  it.  The  Reformed  doc- 
trines had  been  thoroughly  rooted  out  from  Italy  and  Spain.     Bel- 


THE   SPANISH    ARMADA    AND    ITS    DEFEAT  367 

gium,  which  had  previously  been  half  Protestant,  had  been  recon- 
quered both  in  allegiance  and  creed  by  Philip,  and  had  become  one 
of  the  most  Catholic  countries  in  the  world.  Half  Germany  had 
been  won  back  to  the  old  faith.  In  Savoy,  in  Switzerland,  and 
many  other  countries,  the  progress  of  the  coimter-Reformation  had 
been  rapid  and  decisive.  The  Catholic  leag-ue  seemed  victorious 
in  France.  The  papal  court  itself  had  shaken  off  the  supineness 
of  recent  centuries,  and,  at  the  head  of  the  Jesuits  and  the  other 
new  ecclesiastical  orders,  was  displaying  a  vigor  and  a  boldness 
worthy  of  the  days  of  Hildebrand,  or  Innocent  III. 

Throughout  Continental  Europe,  the  Protestants,  discomfited 
and  dismaj'ed,  looked  to  England  as  their  protector  and  refuge. 
England  was  the  acknowledged  central  point  of  Protestant  power 
and  pohcy ;  and  to  conquer  England  was  to  stab  Protestantism  to 
the  very  heart.  Sixtus  Y.,  the  then  reigning  pope,  earnestly  ex- 
horted Philip  to  this  enterprise.  And  when  the  tidings  reached 
Italy  and  Spain  that  the  Protestant  queen  of  England  had  put  to 
death  her  CathoKc  prisoner,  Mary  Queen  of  Scots,  the  fury  of  the 
Vatican  and  Escurial  knew  no  bounds.  Elizabeth  was  denounced 
as  the  murderous  heretic  whose  destruction  was  an  instant  duty. 
A  formal  treaty  was  concluded  (in  June,  1587),  by  which  the  pope 
boimd  himself  to  contribute  a  million  of  scudi  to  the  expenses  of 
the  war ;  the  money  to  be  paid  as  soon  as  the  king  had  actual 
possession  of  an  English  port.  Philip,  on  his  part,  strained  the 
resources  of  his  vast  empire  to  the  utmost.  The  French  Catholic 
chiefs  eagerly  co-operated  with  him.  In  the  seaports  of  the  Medi- 
terranean, and  along  almost  the  whole  coast  from  Gibraltar  to 
Jutland,  the  preparations  for  the  great  armament  were  urged  for- 
ward with  all  the  earnestness  of  religious  zeal  as  well  as  of  angry 
ambition.  "Thus,"  says  the  German  historian  of  the  popes,  "thus 
did  the  united  powers  of  Italy  and  Spain,  from  which  such  mighty 
influences  had  gone  forth  over  the  whole  world,  now  rouse  them- 
selves for  an  attack  upon  England !  The  king  had  already  compiled, 
from  the  archives  of  Simancas,  a  statement  of  the  claims  which 
he  had  to  the  throne  of  that  country  on  the  extinction  of  the  Stuart 
line;  the  most  brilliant  prospects,  especially  that  of  a  universal 
dominion  of  the  seas,  were  associated  in  his  mind  ■\%nth  this  enter 


368  GREAT   BATTLES    OF   ALL   NATIONS 

prise.  Everything  seemed  to  conspire  to  such  an  end;  the  pre- 
dominanc}-  of  Cathohcism  in  Germany,  the  renewed  attack  upon 
the  Huguenots  in  France,  the  attempt  upon  Geneva,  and  the 
enterprise  against  England.  At  the  same  moment,  a  thoroughly 
CathoKc  prince,  Sigismund  III.,  ascended  the  throne  of  Poland, 
with  the  prospect  also  of  future  succession  to  the  throne  of  Sweden, 
But  whenever  any  principle  or  power,  be  it  what  it  may,  aims  at 
unlimited  supremacy  in  Europe,  some  vigorous  resistance  to  it, 
having  its  origin  in  the  deepest  springs  of  human  nature,  invari- 
ably arises.  Philip  II.  had  to  encounter  newl}-- awakened  powers, 
braced  by  the  vigor  of  youth  and  elevated  by  a  sense  of  their 
future  destin}-.  The  intrepid  corsairs,  who  had  rendered  every  sea 
insecure,  now  clustered  round  the  coasts  of  their  native  island. 
The  Protestants  in  a  bodj^ — even  the  Puritans,  although  they  had 
been  subjected  to  as  severe  oppressions  as  the  Catholics — rallied 
round  their  queen,  who  now  gave  admirable  proof  of  her  mascuhne 
courage,  and  her  princelj"  talent  of  winning  the  affections,  and 
leading  the  minds,  and  preserving  the  allegiance  of  men." 

Ranke  should  have  added  that  the  English  Catholics  at  this 
crisis  proved  themselves  as  loyal  to  their  queen  and  true  to  their 
country  as  were  the  most  vehement  anti- Catholic  zealots  in  the 
island.  Some  few  traitors  there  were ;  but  as  a  body  the  English- 
men who  held  the  ancient  faith  stood  the  trial  of  their  patriotism 
nobly.  The  lord  admiral  himself  was  a  Catholic,  and  (to  adopt 
the  words  of  Hallam)  "then  it  was  that  the  Cathohcs  in  every 
county  repaired  to  the  standard  of  the  lord-lieutenant,  imploring 
that  they  might  not  be  suspected  of  bartering  the  national  in- 
dependence for  their  religion  itseK."  The  Spaniard  found  no 
partisans  in  the  country  which  he  assailed,  nor  did  England, 
self-wounded, 

"Lie  at  the  proud  foot  of  her  enemy." 

For  upward  of  a  year  the  Spanish  preparations  had  been  ac- 
tively and  imremittingly  urged  foi'ward.  Negotiations  were,  dur- 
ing this  time,  carried  on  at  Ostend,  in  which  various  pretexts  were 
assigned  by  the  Spanish  commissioners  for  the  gathering  together 
of  such  huge  masses  of  shipping,  and  such  equipments  of  troops  in 


THE    SPANISH    ARMADA    AND    ITS   DEFEAT  369 

all  the  seaports  which  theii-  master  ruled;  but  Philip  himself  took 
little  care  to  disguise  his  intentions;  nor  could  Elizabeth  and  her 
able  ministers  doubt  but  that  this  island  was  the  real  object  of  the 
Spanish  armament.  The  peril  that  was  wisely  foreseen  was  reso- 
lutely provided  for.  Circular  letters  from  the  queen  were  sent 
round  to  the  lord  lieutenants  of  the  several  counties,  requiring 
them  "to  call  together  the  best  sort  of  gentlemen  under  their  lieu- 
tenancy, and  to  declare  unto  them  these  great  preparations  and 
arrogant  threatenings,  now  burst  forth  in  action  upon  the  seas, 
wherein  ever}'  man's  particular  state,  in  the  highest  degree,  could 
be  touched  in  respect  of  country,  liberty,  wives,  children,  lands, 
lives,  and  (which  was  specially  to  be  regarded)  the  profession  of 
the  true  and  sincere  religion  of  Christ.  And  to  lay  before  them 
the  infinite  and  unspeakable  miseries  that  would  fall  out  upon  any 
such  change,  which  miseries  were  evidently  seen  by  the  fruits  of 
that  hard  and  cruel  government  holden  in  countries  not  far  distant. 
We  do  look,"  said  the  queen,  "that  the  most  part  of  them  should 
have,  upon  this  instant  extraordinary  occasion,  a  larger  proportion 
of  furniture,  both  for  horsemen  and  footmen,  but  especially  horse- 
men, than  hath  been  certified  thereby  to  be  in  their  best  strength 
against  any  attempt,  or  to  be  employed  about  our  own  person,  or 
otherwise.  Hereunto  as  we  doubt  not  but  by  your  good  endeavors 
they  will  be  the  rather  conformable,  so  also  we  assure  ourselves 
that  Almighty  God  will  so  bless  these  their  loyal  hearts  borne  to- 
Avard  us,  their  loving  sovereign,  and  their  natural  country,  that  all 
the  attempts  of  any  enemy  whatsoever  shall  be  made  void  and 
frustrate,  to  their  confusion,  j^our  comfort,  and  to  God's  high 
glory." 

Letters  of  a  similar  kind  were  also  sent  by  the  council  to  each 
of  the  nobility,  and  to  the  great  cities.  The  primate  called  on  the 
clergy  for  their  contributions ;  and  by  every  class  of  the  community 
the  appeal  was  responded  to  with  liberal  zeal,  that  offered  more 
even  than  the  queen  required.  The  boasting  threats  of  the  Span- 
iards had  roused  the  spirit  of  the  nation,  and  the  whole  people 
"were  thoroughly  irritated  to  stir  up  their  whole  forces  for  their 
defense  against  such  prognosticated  conquests;  so  that,  in  a  very 
short  time,  all  her  whole  realm,  and  every  corner,  were  furnished 


370  GREAT   BATTLES   OF   ALL   NATIONS 

with  armed  men,  on  horseback  and  on  foot;  and  those  contin- 
ually trained,  exercised,  and  put  into  bands  in  warlike  man- 
ner, as  in  no  age  ever  was  before  in  this  realm.  There  was  no 
sparing  of  money  to  provide  horse,  armor,  weapons,  powder,  and 
aU  necessaries;  no,  nor  want  of  provision  of  pioneers,  carriages, 
and  victuals,  in  every  county  of  the  realm,  without  exception,  to 
attend  upon  the  armies.  And  to  this  general  furniture  every  man 
voluntarily  offered,  very  many  their  services  personally  without 
wages,  others  money  for  armor  and  weapons,  and  to  wage  soldiers ; 
a  matter  strange,  and  never  the  like  heard  of  in  this  realm  or  else- 
where. And  this  general  reason  moved  all  men  to  large  contribu- 
tions, that  when  a  conquest  was  to  be  withstood  wherein  all  should 
be  lost,  it  was  no  time  to  spare  a  portion." 

The  lion-hearted  queen  showed  herself  worthy  of  such  a  people. 
A  camp  was  formed  at  Tilbury ;  and  there  Elizabeth  rode  through 
the  ranks,  encouraging  her  captains  and  her  soldiers  by  her  pres- 
ence and  her  words.  One  of  the  speeches  which  she  addressed 
to  them  during  this  crisis  has  been  preserved;  and,  though  often 
quoted,  it  must  not  be  omitted  here. 

"My  loving  people,"  she  said,  "we  have  been  persuaded  by 
some  that  are  careful  of  our  safety  to  take  heed  how  we  commit 
ourselves  to  armed  multitudes,  for  fear  of  treachery;  but  I  as- 
sure you  I  do  not  desire  to  live  to  distrust  my  faithful  and 
loving  people.  Let  tyrants  fear!  I  have  always  so  behaved 
myself  that,  imder  God,  I  have  placed  my  chiefest  strength  and 
safeguard  in  the  loyal  hearts  and  good-wiU  of  my  subjects ;  and, 
therefore,  I  am  come  among  you,  as  you  see,  at  this  time,  not 
for  my  recreation  and  disport,  but  being  resolved,  in  the  midst 
and  heat  of  the  battle,  to  live  or  die  among  you  all,  to  lay 
down  for  my  God,  for  my  kingdom,  and  for  my  people,  my  honor 
and  my  blood  even  in  the  dust.  I  know  I  have  the  body  but  ot 
a  weak  and  feeble  woman,  but  I  have  the  heart  and  stomach  of  a 
king,  and  of  a  King  of  England,  too,  and  think  it  foul  scorn  that 
Parma,  or  Spain,  or  any  prince  of  Europe  should  dare  to  invade  the 
borders  of  my  realm,  to  which  rather  than  any  dishonor  shall  grow 
by  me  I  m5'-self  will  take  up  arms,  I  myself  will  be  your  general, 
judge,  and  rewarder  of  every  one  of  your  virtues  in  the  field.     I 


THE   SPANISH    ARMADA    AND   ITS    DEFEAT  371 

know  already,  for  your  forwardness,  you  have  deserved  rewards 
and  crowns ;  and  we  do  assure  you,  on  the  word  of  a  prince,  they 
shill  be  duly  paid  you.  In  the  meantime,  my  Heutenant-general 
shaU  be  in  my  stead,  than  whom  never  prince  commanded  a  more 
noble  or  worthy  subject,  not  doubting  but  b}^  your  obedience  to  my 
general,  by  your  concord  in  the  camp,  and  your  valor  in  the  field, 
we  shall  shortly  have  a  famous  victory  over  those  enemies  of  my 
God,  of  my  kingdom,  and  of  my  people," 

Some  of  Elizabeth's  advisers  recommended  that  the  whole  care 
and  resources  of  the  government  should  be  devoted  to  the  equip- 
ment of  the  armies,  and  that  the  enemy,  when  he  attempted  to 
land,  should  be  welcomed  with  a  battle  on  the  shore.  But  the 
wiser  counsels  of  Raleigh  and  others  prevailed,  who  urged  the  im- 
portance of  fitting  out  a  fleet  that  should  encounter  the  Spaniards 
at  sea,  and,  if  possible,  prevent  them  from  approaching  the  land  at 
all.  In  Raleigh's  great  work  on  the  "History  of  the  World,"  he 
takes  occasion,  when  discussing  some  of  the  events  of  the  first 
Punic  war,  to  give  his  reasonings  on  the  proper  policy  of  England 
when  menaced  with  invasion.  Without  doubt,  we  have  there  the 
substance  of  the  advice  which  he  gave  to  Elizabeth's  council;  and 
the  remarks  of  such  a  man  on  such  a  subject  have  a  general  and 
enduring  interest,  beyond  the  immediate  crisis  which  called  them 
forth.  Raleigh  says:  "Surely  I  hold  that  the  best  way  is  to  keep 
our  enemies  from  treading  upon  our  ground;  wherein  if  we  fail, 
then  must  we  seek  to  make  him  wish  that  he  had  stayed  at  his  own 
home.  In  such  a  case,  if  it  should  happen,  our  judgments  are  to 
weigh  many  particular  circumstances,  that  belongs  not  unto  this 
discourse.  But  making  the  question  general,  the  positive.  Whether 
England,  without  the  help  of  her  fleet,  he  able  to  debar  an  enemy 
from  landing,  I  hold  that  it  is  unable  so  to  do,  and  therefore  I 
think  it  most  dangerous  to  make  the  adventure;  for  the  encourage- 
ment of  a  first  victory  to  an  enemy,  and  the  discouragement  of 
being  beaten  to  the  invaded,  may  draw  after  it  a  most  perilous 
consequence. 

"Great  difference  I  know  there  is,  and  a  diverse  consideration 
to  be  had,  between  such  a  country  as  France  is,  strengthened  \Wth 
many  fortified  places,  and  this  of  ours,  where  our  ramparts  are  but 


372  GREAT   BATTLES    OF    ALL   NATIONS 

the  bodies  of  men.  But  I  say  that  an  army  to  be  transported  over 
sea,  and  to  be  landed  again  in  an  enemy's  country,  and  the  place 
left  to  the  choice  of  the  invader,  cannot  be  resisted  on  the  coast 
of  England  without  a  fleet  to  impeach  it;  no,  nor  on  the  coast  of 
France,  or  any  other  country,  except  every  creek,  port,  or  sandy 
bay  had  a  powerful  army  in  each  of  them  to  make  opposition.  For 
let  the  supposition  be  granted  that  Kent  is  able  to  furnish  twelve 
thousand  foot,  and  that  those  twelve  thousand  be  layed  in  the  three 
best  landing-places  within  that  country;  to  wit,  three  thousand  at 
Margat,  three  thousand  at  the  Nesse,  and  six  thousand  at  Foulk- 
stone,  that  is,  somewhat  equally  distant  from  them  both,  as  also 
that  two  of  these  troops  (unless  some  other  order  be  thought  more 
tit)  be  directed  to  strengthen  the  third,  when  they  shall  see  the 
enemy's  fleet  to  head  toward  it :  I  say,  that  notwithstanding  this 
provision,  if  the  enemy,  setting  sail  from  the  Isle  of  Wight,  in  the 
first  watch  of  the  night,  and  towing  their  long  boats  at  their  stems, 
shall  arrive  by  dawn  of  day  at  the  Nesse,  and  thrust  their  army  on 
shore  there,  it  will  be  hard  for  those  three  thousand  that  are  at 
Margat  (twenty-and-four  long  miles  from  thence)  to  come  time 
enough  to  re-enforce  their  fellows  at  the  Nesse.  Nay,  how  shall 
they  at  Foulkstone  be  able  to  do  it,  who  are  nearer  by  more  than 
half  the  way?  seeing  that  the  enemj",  at  his  first  arrival,  will  either 
make  his  entrance  by  force,  with  three  or  four  shot  of  great  artil- 
lery, and  quickly  put  the  first  three  thousand  that  are  intrenched 
at  the  Nesse  to  run,  or  else  give  them  so  much  to  do  that  they  shall 
be  glad  to  send  for  help  to  Foulkstone,  and  perhaps  to  Margat, 
whereby  those  places  will  be  left  bare.  Now,  let  us  suppose  that 
all  the  twelve  thousand  Kentish  soldiers  arrive  at  the  Nesse  ere  the 
enemy  can  be  ready  to  disembarque  his  army,  so  that  he  will  find  it 
unsafe  to  land  in  the  face  of  so  many  prepared  to  withstand  him, 
yet  must  we  believe  that  he  will  play  the  best  of  his  own  game 
(having  liberty  to  go  which  why  he  list),  and  under  covert  of  the 
night,  set  sail  toward  the  east,  where  what  shall  hinder  him  to 
take  ground  either  at  Margat,  the  Downes,  or  elsewhere,  before 
they  at  the  Nesse  can  be  well  aware  of  his  departure?  (Certainly 
there  is  nothing  more  easy  than  to  do  it.  Yea,  the  Hke  may  be 
said  of  "Weymouth,  Purbeck,  Poole,  and  of  all  landing-places  on 


THE    SPANISH    ARMADA    AND    ITS    DEFEAT  373 

the  southwest;  for  there  is  no  man  ignonint  that  ships,  without 
putting  themselves  out  of  breath,  will  easily  outrun  the  soldiers 
that  coast  them.  'Z/es  armies. ne  volent point  en  paste' ;  'Armies 
neither  flye  nor  run  post, '  saith  a  marshal  of  France.  And  I  knoAv 
it  to  be  true,  that  a  fleet  of  ships  may  be  seen  at  sunset,  and  after 
it  at  the  Lizard,  yet  by  the  next  morning  they  may  recover  Port- 
land, whereas  an  army  of  foot  shall  not  be  able  to  march  it  in  six 
dayes.  Again,  when  those  troops  lodged  on  the  sea-shores  shall  be 
forced  to  run  from  place  to  place  in  vain,  after  a  fleet  of  ships,  they 
will  at  length  sit  down  in  the  midway  and  leave  all  at  adventure. 
But  say  it  were  other"\vise,  that  the  invading  enemy  will  offer  to 
land  in  some  such  place  where  there  shall  be  an  army  of  ours  ready 
to  receive  him ;  yet  it  cannot  be  doubted  but  that  when  the  choice 
of  all  our  trained  bands,  and  the  choice  of  our  commanders  and 
captains,  shall  be  drawn  together  (as  they  were  at  Tilbury  in  the 
year  1588)  to  attend  the  person  of  the  prince,  and  for  the  defense 
of  the  city  of  London,  they  that  remain  to  guard  the  coast  can  be 
of  no  such  force  as  to  encounter  an  arni}^  like  unto  that  wherewith 
it  was  intended  that  the  Prince  of  Parma  should  have  landed  in 
England. 

"For  end  of  this  digression,  I  hope  that  this  question  shall  never 
come  to  trial:  his  majesty's  many  movable  forts  will  forbid  the  ex- 
perience. And  although  the  English  will  no  less  disdain,  than  any 
nation  under  heaven  can  do,  to  be  beaten  upon  their  own  ground, 
or  elsewhere,  by  a  foreign  enemy,  yet  to  entertain  those  that  shall 
assail  us,  with  their  own  beef  in  their  belhes,  and  before  they  eat  of 
our  Kentish  capons,  I  take  it  to  be  the  wisest  way ;  to  do  which  his 
majesty,  after  God,  will  employ  his  good  ships  on  the  sea,  and  not 
trust  in  any  intrenchment  upon  the  shore." 

The  introduction  of  steam  as  a  propelling  power  at  sea  has 
added  tenfold  weight  to  these  arguments  of  Raleigh.  On  the 
other  hand,  a  well-consti*ucted  system  of  railways,  especiallj'-  of 
coast-lines,  aided  by  the  operation  of  the  electric  telegraph,  would 
give  facilities  for  concentrating  a  defensive  armj'  to  oppose  an 
enemy  on  landing,  and  for  moving  troops  from  place  to  place  in 
observation  of  the  movements  of  the  hostile  fleet,  such  as  would 
have  astonished  Sir  "Walter,  even  more  than  the  sight  of  vessels 


374  GREAT   BATTLES    OF   ALL   NATIONS 

passing  rapidly  to  and  fro  without  the  aid  of  wind  or  tide.  The 
observation  of  the  French  marshal,  whom  he  quotes,  is  now  no 
longer  correct.  Armies  can  be  made  to  pass  from  place  to  place 
almost  with  the  speed  of  wings,  and  far  more  rapidly  than  any 
post-traveling  that  was  known  in  the  Elizabethan  or  any  other 
age.  Still,  the  presence  of  a  sufficient  armed  force  at  the  right 
spot,  at  the  right  time,  can  never  be  made  a  matter  of  certainty, 
and  even  after  the  changes  that  have  taken  place,  no  one  can 
doubt  but  that  the  policy  of  Raleigh  is  that  which  England  should 
ever  seek  to  follow  in  defensive  war.  At  the  time  of  the  Armada, 
that  policy  certainly  saved  the  country,  if  not  from  conquest,  at 
least  from  deplorable  calamities.  If  indeed  the  enemy  had  landed, 
we  may  be  sure  that  he  woidd  have  been  heroically  opposed.  But 
history  shows  us  so  many  examples  of  the  superiority  of  veteran 
troops  over  new  levies,  however  numerous  and  brave,  that,  with- 
out disparaging  our  countrymen's  soldierly  merits,  we  may  well  be 
thankful  that  no  trial  of  them  was  then  made  on  English  land. 
Especially  must  we  feel  this  when  we  contrast  the  high  military 
genius  of  the  Prince  of  Parma,  who  would  have  headed  the  Span- 
iards, with  the  imbecility  of  the  Earl  of  Leicester,  to  whom  the 
deplorable  spirit  of  favoritism,  which  formed  the  great  blemish  on 
Elizabeth's  character,  had  then  committed  the  chief  command  of 
the  English  armies. 

The  ships  of  the  royal  navy  at  this  time  amounted  to  no  more 
than  thirty-six;  but  the  most  serviceable  merchant  vessels  were 
collected  from  all  the  ports  of  the  country;  and  the  citizens  of 
London,  Bristol,  and  the  other  great  seats  of  commerce,  showed  as 
liberal  a  zeal  in  equipping  and  manning  vessels  as  the  nobility  and 
gentry  displayed  in  mustering  forces  by  land.  The  seafaring  popu- 
lation of  the  coast,  of  every  rank  and  station,  was  animated  by  the 
same  ready  spirit ;  and  the  whole  number  of  seamen  who  came  for- 
ward to  man  the  English  fleet  was  17,472.  The  number  of  the 
ships  that  were  collected  was  191,  and  the  total  amount  of  their 
tonnage,  31,985.  There  was  one  ship  in  the  fleet  (the  "Triumph") 
of  1,100  tons,  one  of  1,000,  one  of  900,  two  of  800  each,  three  of  600, 
five  of  500,  five  of  400,  six  of  300,  six  of  250,  twenty  of  200,  and  the 
residue    ~f  inferior  burden.     Application  was  made  to  the  Dutch 


THE   SPANISH    ARMADA    AND    ITS    DEFEAT  375 

for  assistance;  and,  as  Stowe  expresses  it,  "The  Hollanders  came 
roundly  in,  with  threescore  sail,  brave  ships  of  war,  fierce  and  full 
of  spleen,  not  so  much  for  England's  aid,  as  in  just  occasion  for 
their  own  defense:  these  men  foreseeing  the  greatness  of  the 
danger  that  might  ensue  if  the  Spaniards  should  chance  to  win 
the  day  and  get  the  mastery  over  them;  in  due  regard  whereof, 
their  manly  courage  was  inferior  to  none." 

We  have  more  minute  information  of  the  number  and  equip- 
ment of  the  hostile  forces  than  we  have  of  our  own.  In  the  first 
volume  of  Hakluyt's  "Voyages,"  dedicated  to  Lord  Eflfingham, 
who  commanded  against  the  Armada,  there  is  given  (from  the 
contemporary  foreign  writer,  Meteran)  a  more  complete  and 
detailed  catalogue  than  has  perhaps  ever  appeared  of  a  similar 
armament. 

"A  very  large  and  particular  description  of  this  navie  was  put 
in  print  and  published  by  the  Spaniards,  wherein  were  set  downe 
the  number,  names,  and  burthens  of  the  shippes,  the  number  of 
mariners  and  soldiers  throughout  the  whole  fleete;  likewise  the 
quantitie  of  their  ordinance,  of  their  armor,  of  bullets,  of  match, 
of  gun-poulder,  of  victuals,  and  of  all  their  navall  furniture  was 
in  the  saide  description  particularized.  Unto  all  these  were  added 
the  names  of  the  governours,  captaines,  noblemen,  and  gentlemen 
voluntaries,  of  whom  there  was  so  great  a  multitude,  that  scarce 
was  there  any  family  of  accompt,  or  an}^  one  principall  man 
throughout  all  Spaine,  that  had  not  a  brother,  sonne,  or  kinsman 
in  that  fleete ;  who  all  of  them  were  in  good  hope  to  purchase  unto 
themselves  in  that  navie  (as  they  termed  it)  invincible,  endless 
glory  and  renown,  and  to  possess  themselves  of  great  seigniories 
and  riches  in  England  and  in  the  Low  Countreys.  But  because 
the  said  description  was  translated  and  published  out  of  Spanish 
into  divers  other  languages,  we  will  here  only  make  an  abridge- 
ment or  brief  rehearsal  thereof. 

"Portugall  furnished  and  set  foorth  under  the  conduct  of  the 
Duke  of  Medina  Sidonia,  generall  of  the  fleete,  10  galeons,  2  za- 
braes,  1,300  mariners,  3,300  souldiers,  300  great  pieces,  with  all 
requisite  furniture. 

"Biscay,  under  the  conduct  of  John  Martines  de  Ricalde,  ad- 


376  GREAT    BATTLES    OF   ALL    NATIONS 

miral  of  the  whole  lieete,  set  forth  10  galeons,  4  pataches,  700 
mariners,  2,000  souldiers,  250  great  pieces,  etc. 

"Guipiisco,  under  the  conduct  of  Michael  de  Oquendo,  10 
galeons,  4  pataches,  700  mariners,  2,000  souldiers,  310  great 
pieces. 

"Italj^  with  he  Levant  islands,  under  Martine  de  Vertendona, 
10  galeons,  800  mariners,  2,000  souldiers,  310  great  pieces,  etc. 

"Castile,  under  Diego  Flores  de  Valdez,  14  galeons,  2  pataches, 
1,700  mariners,  2,400  souldiers,  and  380  great  pieces,  etc. 

"Andaluzia,  under  the  conduct  of  Petro  de  Valdez,  10  galeons, 
1  patache,  800  mariners,  2,400  souldiers,  280  great  pieces,  etc. 

"Item,  under  the  conduct  of  John  Lopez  de  Medina,  23  great 
Flemish  hulkes,  with  700  mariners,  3,200  souldiers,  and  400  great 
pieces. 

"Item,  under  Hugo  de  Moncada,  4  galliasses,  containing  1,200 
gally-slaves,  460  mariners,  870  souldiers,  200  great  pieces,  etc. 

"Item,  under  Diego  de  Mandrana,  4  gallies  of  Portugal!,  with 
888  gally-slaves,  360  mariners,  20  great  pieces,  and  other  requisite 
furniture. 

"Item,  under  Anthonie  de  Mendoza,  22  pataches  and  zabraes, 
with  574  mariners,  488  souldiers,  and  193  great  pieces. 

"Besides  the  ships  aforementioned,  there  were  20  caravels 
rowed  with  oares,  being  appointed  to  performe  necessary  services 
under  the  greater  ships,  insomxich  that  all  the  ships  appertayning 
to  this  navie  amounted  unto  the  summe  of  150,  eche  one  being 
sufficiently  provided  of  furniture  and  victuals. 

"The  number  of  mariners  in  the  saide  fleete  were  above  8,000, 
of  slaves  2,088,  of  souldiers  20,000  (besides  noblemen  and  gentle- 
men voluntaries),  of  great  cast  pieces  2,600.  The  foresaid  ships 
were  of  an  huge  and  incredible  capacitie  and  receipt,  for  the 
whole  fleete  was  large  enough  to  containe  the  burthen  of  60,000 
tunnes. 

"The  galeons  were  64  in  number,  being  of  an  huge  bignesse, 
and  very  flately  built,  being  of  marvellous  force  also,  and  so  high 
that  they  resembled  great  castles,  most  fit  to  defend  themselves 
and  to  withstand  any  assault^  but  in  giving  any  other  ships  the 
encounter  fan-  inferiour  unto  the  English  and  Dutch  ships,  whicli 


THE   SPANISH    ARMAUA    AND    ITS   DEFEAT  377 

caa  with  great  dexteritie  vveild  and  turne  themselves  ut  all  assayes 
The    upper   >voi-ke   o£    the    said    galeon.   was    of    thickness,  and 
strength  sufficient   to   beare   off   n.usket-shot.     The  lovve,-  wcke 
and  the  timbers  thereof  were  out  of  measure  strong,  ben>g  framed 
of  plankes  and  ribs  fou.-e  or  five  foote  in  thicknesse  insomuch  tha 
no  bullets  could  pierce  them  but  such  as  were  discharged  hard  at 
hand,  which  aftenvard  prooved  true,  for  a  great  number  ot  buUets 
were  founde  to  sticke  fa^t  within  the  massie  substance  o    those 
thicke  plankes.     Great  and  well-pitched  cables  were  twmed  about 
the  masts  ot  their  shippes,  to  strengthen  them  agamst  the  battery 

°'  '^The  galliasses  were  of  such  bignesse  that  they  contained 
within  them  chambers,  chapels,  turrets,  pulpits,  and  other  com- 
modities of  great  houses.  The  gaUiasses  were  rowed  w.th  great 
oa.es.  there  being  in  eche  cue  of  them  300  slaves  or  the  ^e 
purpose,  and  were  able  to  do  great  service  with  the  force  of  then 
ordLnce.  AU  these,  together  with  the  residue  aforenamed,  were 
furnished  and  beautified  with  trumpets,  streamers,  banners,  war- 
like ensignes,  and  other  such  like  ornaments. 

"Their  pieces  of  brazen  ordinance  were  1,600,  and  of  yron  a 

1,000. 

"The  bullets  thereto  belonging  were  120,000. 

"Item  of  gun-poulder,  5,600  quintals.  Of  matche,  1,200  qum- 
tals.  Of  muskets  and  kaleivers,  7,000.  Of  haleberts  and  parti- 
sans, 10,000.  ,     ^, 

"Moreover,  they  had  great  stores  of  caaons,   double-canons, 

oulverings  and  field-pieces  for  land  services. 

"Likewise  they  were  provided  of  all  instrmnents  necessary  on 
land  to  conveigh  and  transport  their  furniture  from  pla^e  to  place, 
as  namely  ot  carts,  wheeles,  wagons,  etc.  Also  they  had  spad^, 
mattocks,  and  baskets  to  set  pioners  on  worke.  They  had  m  hke 
sort  great  store  of  mules  and  horses,  and  whatsoever  eke  was 
requisite  for  a  land  a.mie.  They  were  so  weU  stored  of  b.scmt, 
that  for  th«  space  of  halfe  a  yeere  they  might  allow  eche  person  m 
the  whole  fleete  halfe  a  quintall  every  moneth,  whereof  the  whole 
summe  amounteth  unto  an  hundreth  thousand  qmntals. 
,    "Likewise  of  wine  they  had  147,000  pipes,  sufficient  also  for 


578  GREAT   BATTLES    OF    ALL    NATIONS 

halfe  a  yeere's  expedition.     Of  bacon,  6,500  quintals.     Of  cheese, 
3,000  quintals.     Besides  fish,  rise,  beanes,  pease,  oile,  vinegar,  etc. 

"Moreover,  they  had  12,000  pipes  of  fresh  water,  and  all  other 
necessary  provision,  as  namely  candles,  lanternes,  lampes,  «iailes, 
hempe,  oxe-hides,  and  lead,  to  stop  holes  that  should  be  made 
with  the  battery  of  gunshot.  To  be  short,  they  brought  all 
things  expedient,  either  for  a  fleete  by  sea,  or  for  an  armie  by 
land. 

"This  navie  (as  Diego  PimenteUi  afterward  confessed)  was 
esteemed  by  the  king  himself e  to  containe  32,000  persons,  and  to 
cost  him  every  day  30,000  ducates. 

"There  were  in  the  said  navie  five  terzaes  of  Spaniards  (which 
terzaes  the  Frenchmen  call  regiments),  under  the  command  of  five 
governours,  termed  by  the  Spaniards  masters  of  the  field,  and 
among  the  rest  there  were  many  olde  and  expert  souldiers  chosen 
out  of  the  garisons  of  Sicilie,  Naples,  and  Tercera.  Their  cap- 
taines  or  colonels  were  Diego  PimenteUi,  Don  Francisco  de  Toledo, 
Don  Alonco  de  Lucon,  Don  Nicolas  de  Isla,  Don  Augustin  de 
Mexia,  who  had  eche  of  them  thirty-two  companies  under  their 
conduct.  Besides  the  which  companies,  there  were  many  bands 
also  of  Castilians  and  Portugals,  every  one  of  which  had  their 
peculiar  governours,  captains,  oflScers,  colors,  and  weapons. ' ' 

While  this  huge  armament  was  making  ready  in  the  southern 
ports  of  the  Spanish  dominions,  the  Duke  of  Parma,  with  almost 
incredible  toil  and  skill,  collected  a  squadron  of  warships  at  Dun- 
kirk, and  a  large  flotilla  of  other  ships  and  of  flat-bottomed  boats 
for  the  transport  to  England  of  the  picked  troops,  which  were  de- 
signed to  be  the  main  instruments  in  subduing  England.  The 
design  of  the  Spaniards  was  that  the  Armada  should  give  them, 
at  least  for  a  time,  the  command  of  the  sea,  and  that  it  should 
join  the  squadron  that  Parma  had  collected  off  Calais.  Then, 
escorted  by  an  overpowering  naval  force,  Parma  and  his  army 
were  to  embark  in  their  flotilla,  and  cross  the  sea  to  England, 
where  they  were  to  be  landed,  together  with  the  troops  which 
the  Armada  brought  from  the  ports  of  Spain.  The  scheme  was 
not  dissimilar  to  one  formed  against  England  a  little  more  than 
two  centuries  afterward. 


THE   SPANISH    ARMADA    AND    ITS    DEFEAT  379 

As  Napoleon,  in  1805,  waited  with  his  army  and  flotilla  at 
Boulogne,  looking  for  Villeneuve  to  drive  away  the  English 
cruisers  and  secure  him  a  passage  across  the  Channel,  so  Parma, 
in  1588,  waited  for  Medina  Sidonia  to  drive  away  the  Dutch  and 
English  squadrons  that  watched  his  flotilla,  and  to  enable  his 
veterans  to  cross  the  sea  to  the  land  that  they  were  to  conquer. 
Thanks  to  Providence,  in  each  case  England's  enemy  waited 
in  vain! 

Although  the  numbers  of  sail  which  the  queen's  government 
and  the  patriotic  zeal  of  volunteers  had  collected  for  the  defense 
of  England  exceeded  the  number  of  sail  in  the  Spanish  fleet,  the 
English  ships  were,  collectively,  far  inferior  in  size  to  their  adver- 
saries, their  aggregate  tonnage  being  less  by  half  than  that  of  the 
enemy.  In  the  number  of  guns  and  weight  of  metal,  the  dispro- 
portion was  still  greater.  The  English  admiral  was  also  obliged 
to  subdivide  his  force ;  and  Lord  Hemy  Seymour,  with  forty  of 
the  best  Dutch  and  Enghsh  ships,  was  employed  in  blockading  the 
hostile  ports  in  Flanders,  and  in  preventing  the  Duke  of  Parma 
from  coming  out  of  Dunkirk. 

The  "Invincible  Armada,"  as  the  Spaniards  in  the  pride  of 
their  hearts  named  it,  set  sail  from  the  Tagus  on  the  29th  of  May, 
but  near  Corunna  met  with  a  tempest  that  drove  it  into  port  with 
severe  loss.  It  was  the  report  of  the  damage  done  to  the  enemy 
by  this  storm  which  had  caused  the  English  court  to  suppose  that 
there  would  be  no  invasion  that  year.  But,  as  already  mentioned, 
the  English  admiral  had  sailed  to  Corunna,  and  learned  the  real 
state  of  the  case,  whence  he  had  returned  with  his  ships  to  Ply- 
mouth. The  Armada  sailed  again  from  Corunna  on  the  12th  of 
July.  The  orders  of  King  Philip  to  the  Duke  de  Medina  Sidonia 
were,  that  he  should,  on  entering  the  Channel,  keep  near  the 
French  coast,  and,  if  attacked  by  the  English  ships,  avoid  an 
action  and  steer  on  to  Calais  Roads,  where  the  Prince  of  Parma's 
squadron  was  to  join  him.  The  hope  of  surprising  and  destroying 
the  English  fleet  in  Plymouth  led  the  Spanish  admiral  to  deviate 
from  these  orders  and  to  stand  across  to  the  English  shore;  but, 
on  finding  that  Lord  Howard  was  coming  out  to  meet  him,  he  re- 
sumed the  original  plan,  and  determined  to  bend  his  way  steadih 


38o  GREAT   BATTLES    OF    ALL    NATIONS 

toward  Calais  and  Dunkirk,  and  to  keep  merely  on  the  defensive 
against  such  squadrons  of  the  English  as  might  come  up  with  him. 

It  was  on  Saturday,  the  30th  of  July,  that  Lord  Effingham 
came  in  sight  of  his  formidable  adversaries.  The  Armada  was 
drawn  up  in  form  of  a  crescent,  which,  from  horn  to  horn,  meas- 
vired  some  seven  miles.  There  was  a  southwest  wind,  and  before 
it  the  vast  vessels  sailed  slowly  on.  The  EngHsh  let  them  pass  by, 
and  then,  following  in  the  rear,  commenced  an  attack  on  them.  A 
running  fight  now  took  place,  in  which  some  of  the  best  ships  of 
the  Spaniards  were  captured,  many  more  received  heavy  damage, 
while  the  English  vessels,  which  took  care  not  to  close  with  their 
huge  antagonists,  but  availed  themselves  of  their  superior  celerity 
in  tacking  and  maneuvering,  suffered  little  comparative  loss.  Each 
day  added  not  only  to  the  spirit  but  to  the  number  of  Effingham's 
force.  Raleigh,  Oxford,  Cumberland,  and  Sheffield  joined  him; 
and  "the  gentlemen  of  England  hired  ships  from  all  parts  at  their 
own  charge,  and  with  one  accord  came  flocking  thither  as  to  a 
set  field,  where  glory  was  to  be  attained  and  faithful  service 
performed  unto  their  prince  and  their  country." 

Raleigh  justly  praises  the  English  admiral  for  his  skillful 
tactics.  Raleigh  says,  "Certainly,  he  that  will  happily  perform 
a  fight  at  sea  must  be  skillful  in  making  choice  of  vessels  to  fight 
in :  he  must  believe  that  there  is  more  belonging  to  a  good  man 
of  war,  upon  the  waters,  than  great  daring;  and  must  know  that 
there  is  a  great  deal  of  difference  between  fighting  loose  or  at  large 
and  grappling.  The  guns  of  a  slow  ship  pierce  as  well  and  make  as 
great  holes  as  those  in  a  swift.  To  clap  ships  together,  without  con- 
sideration, belongs  rather  to  a  madman  than  to  a  man  of  war;  for 
by  such  an  ignorant  bravery  was  Peter  Strossie  lost  at  the  Azores, 
when  he  fought  against  the  Marques  of  Santa  Cruza.  In  like  sort 
had  the  Lord  Charles  Howard,  admiral  of  England,  been  lost  in 
the  year  1588,  if  he  had  not  been  better  advised  than  a  great  many 
malignant  fools  were  that  found  fault  with  his  demeanor.  The 
Spaniards  had  an  army  aboard  them,  and  he  had  none ;  they  had 
more  ships  than  he  had,  and  of  higher  building  and  charging;  so 
that,  had  he  entangled  himself  with  those  great  and  powerful 
vessels,  he  had  greatly  endangered  this  kingdom  of  England;  for 


THE   SPANISH    ARMADA    AND    ITS    DEFEAT  381 

twenty  men  upon  the  defenses  are  equal  to  a  hundred  that  board 
and  enter;  whereas  then,  contrariwise,  the  Spaniards  had  a  hun- 
dred, for  twenty  of  ours,  to  defend  themselves  withal.  But  our 
admiral  knew  his  advantage,  and  held  it ;  which  had  he  not  done 
he  had  not  been  worthy  to  have  held  his  head  up." 

The  Spanish  admiral  also  showed  great  judgment  and  firmness 
in  following  the  line  of  conduct  that  had  been  traced  out  for  him: 
and,  on  the  2Tth  of  July,  he  brought  his  fleet  unbroken,  though 
sorely  distressed,  to  anchor  in  Calais  Roads.  But  the  king  of 
Spain  had  calculated  ill  the  number  and  the  activitj-  of  the  English 
and  Dutch  fleets;  as  the  old  historian  expresses  it,  "It  seemeth  that 
the  Duke  of  Parma  and  the  Spaniards  grounded  upon  a  vain  and 
presumptuous  expectation,  that  all  the  ships  of  England  and  of 
the  Low  Countreys  would  at  the  first  sight  of  the  Spanish  and 
Dunkerk  navie  have  betaken  themselves  to  flight,  yeelding  them 
sea-room,  and  endeavoring  only  to  defend  themselues,  their  havens, 
and  sea-coasts  from  invasion.  Wherefore  their  intent  and  pui'pose 
was,  that  the  Duke  of  Parma,  in  his  small  and  flat-bottomed  ships, 
should,  as  it  were  under  the  shadow  and  wings  of  the  Spanish  fleet, 
convey  ouer  all  his  troupes,  armor,  and  war-like  p^o^^sions,  and 
^\*ith  their  forces  so  united,  should  invade  England;  or  while  the 
English  fleet  were  busied  in  fight  against  the  Spanish,  should  enter 
upon  any  part  of  the  coast,  which  he  thought  to  be  most  conven- 
ient. Which  invasion  (as  the  captives  afterward  confessed)  the 
Duke  of  Parma  thought  first  to  have  attempted  by  the  River  of 
Thames;  upon  the  bankes  whereof  ha-ving  at  the  first  arrivall 
landed  twenty  or  thirty  thousand  of  his  principall  sovddiei"S,  he 
supposed  that  he  might  easily  have  wonne  the  citie  of  London ; 
both  because  liis  small  shippes  should  have  followed  and  assisted 
his  land  forces,  and  also  for  that  the  citie  it-selfe  was  but  meanely 
fortified  and  easie  to  ouercome,  by  reason  of  the  citizens'  delicacie 
and  discontinuance  from  the  warres,  who,  with  continuall  and 
constant  labor,  might  be  vanquished,  if  they  3-ielded  not  at  the 
first  assault." 

But  the  English  and  Dutch  found  ships  and  mariners  enough 
to  keep  the  Armada  itself  in  check,  and  at  the  same  time  to  block 
up  Parma's  flotilla.     The  greater  part  of  Se}-mour's  sciuadron  left 


382  GREAT   BATTLES   OF   ALL   NATIONS 

its  cruising-ground  off  Dunkirk  to  join  the  English  admiral  off 
Calais;  but  the  Dutch  manned  about  five-and-thirty  sail  of  good 
ships,  with  a  strong  force  of  soldiers  on  board,  all  well  seasoned 
to  the  sea-service,  and  with  these  they  blockaded  the  Flemish  ports 
that  were  in  Parma's  power.  Still  it  was  resolved  by  the  Spanish 
admiral  and  the  prince  to  endeavor  to  effect  a  junction,  which  the 
English  seamen  were  equally  resolute  to  prevent ;  and  bolder  meas- 
ures on  our  side  now  became  necessary. 

The  Armada  lay  off  Calais,  with  its  largest  ships  ranged  out- 
side, "Hke  strong  castles  fearing  no  assault,  the  lesser  placed  in 
the  middle  ward."  The  English  admiral  could  not  attack  them 
in  their  position  without  great  disadvantage,  but  on  the  night  of 
the  29th  he  sent  eight  fire-ships  among  them,  with  almost  equal 
effect  to  that  of  the  fire-ships  which  the  Greeks  so  often  employed 
against  the  Turkish  fleets  in  their  war  of  independence.  The 
Spaniards  cut  their  cables  and  put  to  sea  in  confusion.  One  of 
the  largest  galeasses  ran  foul  of  another  vessel  and  was  stranded. 
The  rest  of  the  fleet  was  scattered  about  on  the  Flemish  coast,  and 
when  the  morning  broke  it  was  with  difficulty  and  delay  that  they 
obeyed  their  admiral's  signal  to  range  themselves  round  him  near 
Gravelines.  Now  was  the  golden  opportunity  for  the  Enghsh  to 
assail  them,  and  prevent  them  from  ever  letting  loose  Parma's 
flotilla  against  England,  and  nobly  was  that  opportunity  used. 
Drake  and  Fenner  were  the  first  Enghsh  captains  who  attacked 
the  unwieldy  leviathans;  then  came  Fenton,  Southwell,  Burton, 
Cross,  Raynor,  and  then  the  lord  admiral,  with  Lord  Thomas 
Howard  and  Lord  Sheffield.  The  Spaniards  only  thought  of  form- 
ing and  keeping  close  together,  and  were  driven  by  the  English 
past  Dunkirk,  and  far  away  from  the  Prince  of  Parma,  who,  in 
watching  their  defeat  from  the  coast,  must,  as  Drake  expressed 
it,  have  chafed  like  a  bear  robbed  of  her  whelps.  This  was  indeed 
the  last  and  the  decisive  battle  between  the  two  fleets.  It  is,  per- 
haps, best  described  in  the  very  words  of  the  contemporary  writer, 
as  we  may  read  them  in  Hakluyt. 

"Upon  the  29  of  July  in  the  morning,  the  Spanish  fleet  after 
the  forsayd  tumult,  having  arranged  themselues  againe  into  order, 
were,  within  sight  of  Greveling,   most  bravely  and  furiously  en- 


THE   SPANISH   ARMADA   AND   ITS   DEFEAT  383 

countered  by  the  English,  where  they  once  again  got  the  wind  of 
the  Spaniards,  who  suffered  themselues  to  be  deprived  of  the  com- 
modity of  the  place  in  Caleis  Road,  and  of  the  advantage  of  the 
wind  neer  unto  Dunkerk,  rather  than  they  would  change  their 
array  or  separate  their  forces  now  conjoyned  and  united  together, 
standing  only  upon  their  defense. 

"And  albeit  there  were  many  excellent  and  warlike  ships  in 
the  English  fleet,  yet  scarce  were  there  22  or  23  among  them  all, 
which  matched  90  of  the  Spanish  ships  in  the  bigness,  or  could 
conveniently  assault  them.  Wherefore  the  English  shippes  using 
their  prerogative  of  nimble  steerage,  whereby  they  could  tm-n  and 
wield  themselues  with  the  wind  which  way  they  listed,  came  often 
times  very  near  upon  the  Spaniards,  and  charged  them  so  sore, 
that  now  and  then  they  were  but  a  pike's  length  asunder;  and  so 
continually  giving  them  one  broad  side  after  another,  they  dis- 
charged all  their  shot,  both  great  and  small,  upon  them,  spending 
one  whole  day,  from  morning  till  night,  in  that  violent  kind  of 
conflict,  untill  such  time  as  powder  and  bullets  failed  them.  In 
regard  of  which  want  they  thought  it  convenient  not  to  pursue  the 
Spaniards  any  longer,  because  they  had  many  great  vantages  of 
the  English,  namely,  for  the  extraordinary  bigness  of  their  shippes, 
and  also  for  that  they  were  so  neerely  conjoyned,  and  kept  together 
in  so  good  array,  that  they  could  by  no  meanes  be  fought  withall 
one  to  one.  The  English  thought,  therefore,  that  they  had  right 
well  acquitted  themselues  in  chasing  the  Spaniards  first  from 
Caleis,  and  then  from  Dunkerk,  and  by  that  means  to  have  hin- 
dered them  from  joyning  with  the  Duke  of  Parma  his  forces,  and 
getting  the  wind  of  them,  to  have  driven  them  from  their  own 
coasts. 

"The  Spaniards  that  day  sustained  great  loss  and  damage, 
having  many  of  their  shippes  shot  thorow  and  thorow,  and  they 
discharged  hkewise  great  store  of  ordinance  against  the  English, 
who,  indeed,  sustained  some  hinderance,  but  not  comparable  to 
the  Spaniard's  loss;  for  they  lost  not  any  one  ship  or  person  of 
account ;  for  very  dihgent  inquisition  being  made,  the  Englishmen 
ail  that  time  wherein  the  Spanish  navy  sayled  upon  their  seas,  are 
not  found  to  haue  wanted  aboue  one  hundred  of  then*  people ;  albeit 


384  GREAT    BATTLES   OF    ALL    NATIONS 

Sir  Francis  Drake's  ship  was  pierced  with  shot  aboue  forty  times, 
and  his  very  cabben  was  twice  shot  thorow,  and  about  the  conclu- 
sion of  the  fight,  the  bed  of  a  certaine  gentleman  lying  weary  there- 
upon, was  taken  quite  from  under  him  with  the  force  of  a  bullet. 
Likewise,  as  the  Earle  of  Northumberland  and  Sir  Charles  Blunt 
were  at  dinner  upon  a  time,  the  bullet  of  a  demy-culvering  brake 
thorow  the  middest  of  their  cabben,  touched  their  feet,  and  strooke 
downe  two  of  the  standers-by,  with  many  such  accidents  befalling 
the  English  shippes,  which  it  were  tedious  to  rehearse." 

It  reflects  little  credit  on  the  English  government  that  the  En- 
glish fleet  was  so  deficiently  supphed  with  ammunition  as  to  be 
unable  to  complete  the  destruction  of  the  invaders.  But  enough 
was  done  to  insure  it.  Many  of  the  largest  Spanish  ships  were 
sunk  or  captured  in  the  action  of  this .  day.  And  at  length  the 
Spanish  admiral,  despairing  of  success,  fled  northward  with  a 
southerly  wind,  in  the  hope  of  rounding  Scotland,  and  so  return- 
ing to  Spain  without  a  further  encounter  with  the  English  fleet. 
Lord  Effingham  left  a  squadron  to  continue  the  blockade  of  the 
Prince  of  Parma's  armament;  but  that  wise  general  soon  withdrew 
his  troops  to  more  promising  fields  of  action.  Meanwhile  the  lord 
admiral  himself,  and  Drake,  chased  the  vincible  Armada,  as  it  was 
now  termed,  for  some  distance  northward ;  and  then,  when  thej- 
seemed  to  bend  away  from  the  Scotch  coast  toward  Norway,  it  was 
thought  best,  in  the  words  of  Drake,  "to  leave  them  to  those  bois- 
terous and  uncouth  Northern  seas. ' ' 

The  sufferings  and  losses  which  the  Spaniards  sustained  in  their 
flight  round  Scotland  and  Ireland  are  well  known.  Of  their  whole 
Armada  only  fifty-three  shattered  vessels  brought  back  their  beaten 
and  wasted  crews  to  the  Spanish  coast,  which  they  had  quitted  in 
such  pageantry  and  pride. 

Some  passages  from  the  writings  of  those  who  took  part  in  the 
struggle  have  been  already  quoted,  and  the  most  spirited  descrip- 
tion of  the  defeat  of  the  Armada  which  ever  was  penned  may  per- 
haps be  taken  from  the  letter  which  Vice-admiral  Drake  wrote  in 
answer  to  some  mendacious  stories  by  which  the  Spaniards  strove 
to  hide  their  shame.  Thus  does  he  describe  the  scenes  in  which 
he  played  so  important  a  part. 


THh    SPANISH    ARMADA    AND    ITS    DEFEAT'  385 

"They  were  not  ashamed  to  pubhsh,  in  sundry  languages  in 
print,  great  victories  in  words,  which  they  pretended  to  have  ob- 
tained against  this  reahn,  and  spread  the  same  in  a  most  false  sort 
over  all  parts  of  France,  Italy,  and  elsewhere ;  when,  shortly  after- 
ward, it  was  happily  manifested  in  very  deed  to  all  nations,  how 
their  navy,  which  they  termed  invincible,  consisting  of  one  hun- 
dred and  forty  sail  of  ships,  not  only  of  their  own  kingdom,  but 
strengthened  with  the  greatest  argosies,  Portugal  carracks,  Floren- 
tines, and  large  hulks  of  other  countries,  were  bj-  thirty  of  her 
majestj^'s  own  ships  of  war,  and  a  few  of  our  own  merchants,  b}- 
the  wise,  valiant,  and  advantageous  conduct  of  the  Lord  Charles 
Howard,  high  admiral  of  England,  beaten  and  shuffled  together 
even  from  the  Lizard  in  Cornwall,  first  to  Portland,  when  they 
shamefully  left  Don  Pedro  de  Valdez  with  his  mighty  ship;  from 
Portland  to  Calais,  where  they  lost  Hugh  de  Moncado,  with  the 
galleys  of  which  he  was  captain ;  and  from  Calais,  driven  with 
squibs  from  their  anchors,  were  chased  out  of  the  sight  of  Eng- 
land, round  about  Scotland  and  Ireland ;  where,  foi-  the  sympathy 
of  their  religion,  hoping  to  find  succor  and  assistance,  a  great  part 
of  them  were  crushed  against  the  rocks,  and  those  others  that 
landed,  being  very  many  in,  number,  were,  notwithstanding^ 
broken,  slain,  and  taken,  and  so  sent  from  village  to  village, 
coupled  in  halters  to  be  shipped  into  England,  where  her  majesty, 
of  her  princely  and  invincible  disposition,  disdaining  to  put  them 
to  death,  and  scorning  either  to  retain  or  to  entertain  them,  the}- 
were  all  sent  back  again  to  their  countries,  to  witness  and  recoiuit 
the  worthy  achievement  of  their  invincible  and  dreadful  navy.  Of 
which  the  number  of  soldiers,  the  fearful  burden  of  their  ships,  the 
commanders'  names  of  every  squadron,  with  all  others,  their  maga- 
zines of  provision,  were  put  in  print,  as  an  army  and  navy  irresisti- 
ble and  disdaining  prevention;  with  all  which  their  great  and 
terrible  ostentation,  they  did  not  in  all  their  sailing  round  about 
England  so  much  as  sink  or  take  one  ship,  bark,  pinnace,  or 
cock-boat  of  ours,  or  even  burn  so  much  as  one  sheep-cote 
on  this  land."  [Creasy. 

M— Vol.  I. 


CHAPTER   XVI 
THE   BATTLE   OF   BLENHEIM 

AMBITIONS    OF    LOUIS  XIV.— GREAT  LEAGUE  THAT  WAS    FORMED 
TO    DEFEAT    THEM— MARLBOROUGH    TO   THE    FRONT 

A.  D.   1704 

AT  the  beginning  of  the  eighteenth  century  the  great  menace 
to  the  general  Hberties  of  Europe  lay  in  the  power  and 
ambitions  of  Louis  XIV.  It  was  his  object  to  consohdate 
France  and  the  Spanish  dominions  into  one  preponderating  empire. 
These  dominions  comprised,  beside  Spain  itself,  the  strongest  part 
of  the  Netherlands,  Sardinia,  Sicily,  Naples,  the  principality  of 
Milan,  the  greater  part  of  Central  and  of  South  America,  many 
of  the  West  Indies,  California  and  Florida,  and  the  Philippines. 
At  the  time  of  the  marriage  of  Louis  to  the  Spanish  Infanta  a 
formal  renunciation  of  all  right  to  the  succession  had  indeed  been 
made.  But  such  renunciations  amount  to  little.  Years  passed, 
and  it  so  fell  about  that  the  king  of  Spain,  dying  without  a  direct 
heir,  appointed  Philip,  Duke  of  Anjou,  Louis'  grandson,  to  succeed 
him.  Louis  well  knew  that  a  general  European  war  would  follow 
if  he  accepted  for  his  branch  of  the  House  of  Bourbon  the  crown 
thus  bequeathed.  But  for  that  war  throughout  his  reign  he  had 
prepared.  "Go,"  he  said  to  his  grandson,  "there  are  no  longer 
any  Pyrenees. ' ' 

The  grandson  obeyed:  at  Madrid  in  1701  he  was  crowned  King 
PhiUp  V.  At  once  alarm  spread  through  Europe.  Through  the 
exertions  of  William  III.  a  league  in  opposition  was  formed  be- 
tween England,  Holland,  and  Austria,  which  was  subsequently 
joined  by  the  kings  of  Portugal  and  Prussia,  by  the  Duke  of 
Savoy,  and  by  Denmark. 
(386) 


THE    BATTLE    OF   BLENHEIM  387 

By  the  death  of  WilHam,  which  occurred  shortly  after,  the 
paralysis  of  this  league  seemed  probable;  "for,"  as  BoHngbroke 
noted,  "notwithstanding  the  ill  success  with  which  he  made  war 
generally,  he  was  looked  upon  as  the  sole  center  of  union  that 
could  keep  together  the  great  confederacy  then  forming;  and  how 
much  the  French  feared  from  his  life  had  appeared  a  few  years 
before,  in  the  extravagant  and  indecent  joy  they  expressed  on 
a  false  report  of  his  death.  A  short  time  showed  how  vain  the 
fears  of  some  and  the  hopes  of  others  were."  Queen  Anne,  within 
three  days  after  her  accession,  went  down  to  the  House  of  -Lords, 
and  there  declared  her  resolution  to  support  the  measures  planned 
by  her  predecessor,  who  had  been  "the  great  support,  not  only  of 
these  kingdoms,  but  of  all  Europe."  Anne  was  married  to  Prince 
George  of  Denmark,  and  by  her  accession  to  the  English  throne 
the  confederacy  against  Louis  obtained  the  aid  of  the  troops  of 
Denmark;  but  Anne's  strong  attachment  to  one  of  her  female 
friends  led  to  far  more  important  advantages  to  the  anti-Gallican 
confederacy  than  the  acquisition  of  many  armies,  for  it  gave  them 
Marlborough  as  their  captain-general. 

There  are  few  successful  commanders  on  whom  Fame  has  shone 
so  unwillingly  as  upon  John  Churchill,  duke  of  Marlborough,  prince 
of  the  Holy  Roman  Empire,  victor  of  Blenheim,  Ramillies,  Ouden- 
arde,  and  Malplaquet,  captor  of  Liege,  Bonn,  Limburg,  Landau, 
Ghent,  Bruges,  Antwerp,  Oudenarde,  Ostend,  Menin,  Dender- 
monde,  Ath,  Lille,  Tournay,  Mons,  Douay,  Aire,  Bethune,  and 
Bouchain;  who  never  fought  a  battle  that  he  did  not  win,  and 
never  besieged  a  place  that  he  did  not  take.  Marlborough's  own 
character  is  the  cause  of  this.  Military  glory  may,  and  too  often 
does,  dazzle  both  contemporaries  and  posterity,  until  the  crimes  as 
well  as  the  vices  of  heroes  are  forgotten.  But  even  a  few  stains 
of  personal  meanness  will  dim  a  soldier's  reputation  irreparably; 
and  Marlborough's  faults  were  of  a  peculiarly  base  and  mean 
order.  Our  feelings  toward  historical  personages  are  in  this  re- 
spect like  our  feelings  toward  private  acquaintances.  There  are 
actions  of  that  shabbj^  nature,  that  however  much  they  may  be 
outweighed  by  a  man's  good  deeds  on  a  general  estimate  of  his 
character,  we  never  can  feel  any  cordial  liking  for  the  person  who 


388  GREAT    BATTLES    OF   ALL    NATIONS 

has  once  been  guilty  of  them.  Thus,  with  respect  to  the  Duke  of 
Marlborough,  it  goes  against  our  feelings  to  admire  the  man  who 
owed  his  first  advancement  in  life  to  the  court  favor  which  he  and 
his  family  acquired  through  his  sister  becoming  one  of  the  mis- 
tresses of  the  Duke  of  York,  It  is  repulsive  to  know  that  Marl- 
borough laid  the  foundation  of  his  wealth  by  being  the  paid  lover 
of  one  of  the  fair  and  frail  favorites  of  Charles  II.  His  treacher}-, 
and  his  ingratitude  to  his  patron  and  benefactor,  James  II.,  stand 
out  in  dark  relief  even  in  that  age  of  thankless  perfidy.  He  was 
almost'  equally  disloyal  to  his  new  master,  King  William ;  and  a 
more  un-English  act  cannot  be  recorded  than  Godolphin's  and 
Marlborough's  betrayal  to  the  French  court  in  169-i  of  the  expedi- 
tion then  designed  against  Brest,  a  piece  of  treacher}^  which  caused 
some  hundreds  of  English  soldiers  and  sailors  to  be  helplessly 
slaughtered  on  the  beach  in  Cameret  Bay. 

It  is,  however,  only  in  his  military  career  that  we  have  now  to 
consider  him;  and  there  are  very  few  generals,  of  either  ancient  or 
modern  times,  whose  campaigns  will  bear  a  comparison  with  those 
of  Marlborough,  either  for  the  masterlj-  skill  with  which  they  were 
planned,  or  for  the  bold  yet  prudent  enei-gy  with  which  each  plan 
was  carried  into  execution.  Marlborough  had  served  while  young 
under  Turenne,  and  had  obtained  the  marked  praise  of  that  great 
tactician.  It  would  be  difficult,  indeed,  to  name  a  single  quahty 
which  a  general  ought  to  have,  and  with  which  Marlborough  was 
not  eminently  gifted.  What  principally  attracted  the  notice  of 
contemporaries  was  the  imperturbable  evenness  of  his  spirit.  Vol- 
taire says  of  him : 

"He  had  to  a  degree  above  all  other  generals  of  liis  time  that 
calm  courage  in  the  midst  of  tumult,  that  serenity  of  soul  in  dan- 
ger, which  the  English  .call  a  cool  head  [que  les  Anglais  appellent 
cold  head,  tefe  froide],  and  it  was,  perhaps,  this  quality,  the 
greatest  gift  of  natui'e  for  command,  which  formerly  gave  the 
English  so  many  advantages  over  the  French  in  the  plains  of 
Cressy,  Poitiers,  and  Agincourt." 

King  William's  knowledge  of  Marlborough's  high  abilities, 
though  he  knew  his  faithlessness  equally  well,  is  said  to  have 
caused  that  sovereign  in  his  last  illness  to  recommend  Marlborough 


THE   BATTLE    OF    BLENHEIM  389 

to  his  successor  as  the  fittest  person  to  cominand  her  armies;  but 
Marlborough's  favor  with  the  new  queen,  by  means  of  his  wife, 
was  so  high,  that  he  was  certain  of  obtaining  the  highest  em- 
ployment; and  the  war  against  Louis  opened  to  him  a  glorious 
theater  for  the  display  of  those  military  talents  which  he  had 
previously  only  had  an  opportunity  of  exercising  in  a  subordinate 
character,  and  on  far  less  conspicuous  scenes. 

He  was  not  only  made  captain-general  of  the  English  forces 
at  home  and  abroad,  but  such  was  the  authority  of  England  in 
the  council  of  the  Grand  Alliance,  and  Marlborough  was  so 
skilled  in  winning  golden  opinions  from  all  whom  he  met  with, 
that,  on  his  reaching  the  Hague,  he  was  received  with  trans- 
ports of  joy  by  the  Dutch,  and  it  was  agreed  by  the  heads  of 
that  repubhc  and  the  minister  of  the  emperor  that  Marlborough 
should  have  the  chief  command  of  all  the  allied  armies. 

It  must,  indeed,  in  justice  to  Marlborough,  be  borne  in  mind 
that  mere  military  skill  was  b}^  no  means  all  that  was  required  of 
him  in  this  arduous  and  invidious  station.  Had  it  not  been  for  his 
unrivaled  patience  and  sweetness  of  temper,  and  his  marvelous 
ability  in  discerning  the  character  of  those  whom  he  had  to  act 
with,  his  intuitive  perception  of  those  who  were  to  be  thoroughly 
trusted,  and  of  those  who  were  to  be  amused  \^ath  the  mere  sem- 
blance of  respect  and  confidence;  had  not  Marlborough  possessed 
and  employed,  while  at  the  head  of  the  allied  armies,  all  the  quali- 
fications of  a  polished  courtier  and  a  great  statesman,  he  never 
would  have  led  the  allied  armies  to  the  Danube.  The  confederac}- 
Avould  not  have  held  together  for  a  single  year.  His  great  political 
adversary,  Bohngbroke,  does  him  ample  justice  here.  Bolingbroke, 
after  referring  to  the  loss  which  King  William's  death  seemed  to 
inflict  on  the  cause  of  the  allies,  observes  that,  "By  his  death  the 
Duke  of  Marlborough  was  raised  to  the  head  of  the  arm}',  and, 
indeed,  of  the  confederacy;  where  he,  a  new,  a  private  man,  a 
subject,  acquired  by  merit  and  by  management  a  more  deciding 
influence  than  high  birth,  confirmed  authoritj',  and  even  the  crown 
of  Great  Britain  had  given  to  King  William.  Not  only  all  the 
parts  of  that  vast  machine,  the  Grand  AUiance,  were  kept  more 
compact  and  entire,  but  a  more  rapid  and  vigorous  motion  was 


390  GREAT    BATTLES    OF   ALL    NATIONS 

given  to  the  whole;  and,  instead  of  languishing  and  disastrous 
campaigns,  we  saw  every  scene  of  the  war  full  of  action.  All 
those  wherein  he  appeared,  and  many  of  those  wherein  he  was 
not  then  an  actor,  but  abettor,  however,  of  their  action,  were 
crowned  with  the  most  triumphant  success. 

"I  take  with  pleasure  this  opportunity  of  doing  justice  to  that 
great  man,  whose  faults  I  knew,  whose  virtues  I  admired;  and 
whose  memory,  as  the  greatest  general  and  the  greatest  minister 
that  our  country,  or  perhaps  any  other,  has  produced,  I  honor." 

War  was  formally  declared  by  the  allies  against  France  on  the 
4th  of  May,  1702.  The  principal  scenes  of  its  operation  were,  at 
first,  Flanders,  the  Upper  Rhine,  and  North  Italj'.  Marlborough 
headed  the  allied  troops  in  Flanders  during  the  first  two  years 
of  the  war,  and  took  some  towns  from  the  enemy,  but  nothing 
decisive  occurred.  Nor  did  any  actions  of  importance  take  place 
during  this  period  between  the  rival  armies  in  Italy.  But  in  the 
center  of  that  line  from  north  to  south,  from  the  mouth  of  the 
Scheldt  to  the  mouth  of  the  Po,  along  which  the  war  was  carried 
on,  the  generals  of  Louis  XIV.  acquired  advantages  in  1703  which 
threatened  one  chief  member  of  the  Grand  Alliance  with  utter  de- 
struction. France  had  obtained  the  important  assistance  of  Bavaria 
as  her  confederate  in  the  war.  The  elector  of  this  powerful  Ger- 
man state  made  himself  master  of  the  strong  fortress  of  Ulm,  and 
opened  a  communication  with  the  French  armies  on  the  Upper 
Rhine.  By  this  junction,  the  troops  of  Louis  were  enabled  to  as- 
sail the  emperor  in  the  very  heart  of  Germany.  In  the  autumn 
of  the  year  1703,  the  combined  armies  of  the  elector  and  French 
king  completely  defeated  the  Imperialists  in  Bavaria;  and  in  the 
following  winter  they  made  themselves  masters  of  the  important 
cities  of  Augsburg  and  'Passau.  Meanwhile  the  French  army  of 
the  Upper  Rhine  and  Moselle  had  beaten  the  allied  armies  opposed 
to  them,  and  taken  Treves  and  Landau.  At  the  same  time,  the 
discontents  in  Hungary  with  Austria  again  broke  out  into  open 
insurrection,  so  as  to  distract  the  attention  and  complete  the  terror 
of  the  emperor  and  his  council  at  Vienna. 

Louis  XIV.  ordered  the  next  campaign  to  be  commenced  by 
his  troops  on  a  scale  of  grandeur  and  with  a  boldness  of  enterprise 


THE    BATTLE    OF    BLENHEIM  391 

such  as  even  Napoleon's  military  schemes  have  seldom  equaled. 
On  the  extreme  left  of  the  line  of  the  war,  in  the  Netherlands,  tho 
French  armies  were  to  act  only  on  the  defensive.  The  fortresses 
in  the  hands  of  the  French  there  were  so  many  and  so  strong  that 
no  serious  impression  seemed  likely  to  be  made  by  the  allies  on  the 
French  frontier  in  that  quarter  during  one  campaign,  and  that  one 
campaign  was  to  give  France  such  triumphs  elsewhere  as  would 
(it  was  hoped)  determine  the  war.  Large  detachments  were  there- 
fore to  be  made  from  the  French  force  in  Flanders,  and  they  were 
to  be  led  by  Marshal  Villeroy  to  the  Moselle  and  Upper  Rhine. 
The  French  army  already  in  the  neighborhood  of  those  rivers  was 
to  march  under  Marshal  Tallard  through  the  Black  Forest,  and 
join  the  Elector  of  Bavaria,  and  the  French  troops  that  were  al- 
ready with  the  elector  under  Marshal  Marsin.  Meanwhile  the 
French  army  of  Italy  was  to  advance  through  the  Tyrol  into 
Austria,  and  the  whole  forces  were  to  combine  between  the 
Danube  and  the  Inn.  A  strong  body  of  troops  was  to  be  dis- 
patched into  Hungary,  to  assist  and  organize  the  insurgents  in 
that  kingdom ;  and  the  French  grand  army  of  the  Danube  was 
then  in  collected  and  irresistible  might  to  march  upon  Vienna,  and 
dictate  terms  of  peace  to  the  emperor.  High  military  genius  was 
shown  in  the  formation  of  this  plan,  but  it  was  met  and  baffled 
by  a  genius  higher  still. 

Marlborough  had  watched,  with  the  deepest  anxiety,  the  prog- 
ress of  the  French  arms  on  the  Rhine  and  in  Bavaria,  and  he  saw 
the  futility  of  carrying  on  a  war  of  posts  and  sieges  in  Flanders, 
while  death-blows  to  the  empire  were  being  dealt  on  the  Danube. 
He  resolved,  therefore,  to  let  the  war  in  Flanders  languish  for  a 
year,  while  he  moved  with  all 'the  disposable  forces  that  he  could 
collect  to  the  central  scenes  of  decisive  ojierations.  Such  a  march 
was  in  itseK  difficult ;  but  Marlborough  had,  in  the  first  instance, 
to  overcome  the  still  greater  difficulty  of  obtaining  the  consent  and 
cheerful  co-operation  of  the  allies,  especially  of  the  Dutch,  whose 
frontier  it  was  proposed  thus  to  deprive  of  the  larger  part  of  the 
force  which  had  hitherto  been  its  protection.  Fortunately,  among 
the  many  slothful,  the  many  foolish,  the  many  timid,  and  the  not 
few  treacherous  rulers,  statesmen,  and  generals  of  different  nations 


392  GREAT   BATTLES    OF   ALL   NATIONS 

with  '.vhom  be  had  to  deal,  there  were  two  men,  eminent  both  in 
abihty  and  integrity,  who  entered  full}"  into  Marlborough's  proj- 
ects, and  who,  from  the  stations  which  they  occupied,  were  enabled 
materially  to  forward  them.  One  of  these  was  the  Dutch  states- 
man Heinsius,  who  had  been  the  cordial  supporter  of  King  Wil- 
liam, and  who  now,  with  equal  zeal  and  good  faith,  supported 
Marlborough  in  the  councils  of  the  allies ;  the  other  was  the  cele- 
brated general,  Prince  Eugene,  whom  the  Austrian  cabinet  had 
recalled  from  the  Italian  frontier  to  take  the  command  of  one  of 
the  emperor's  armies  in  Germany.  To  these  two  great  men,  and 
a  few  more,  Marlborough  communicated  his  plan  freely  and  unre- 
servedly; but  to  the  general  councils  of  his  allies  he  only  disclosed 
part  of  his  daring  scheme.  He  proposed  to  the  Dutch  that  he 
should  march  from  Flanders  to  the  Upper  Rhine  and  Moselle  with 
the  British  troops  and  part  of  the  foreign  auxiliaries,  and  commence 
vigorous  operations  against  the  French  armies  in  that  quarter, 
while  General  Auverquerque,  with  the  Dutch  and  the  remainder 
of  the  auxiliaries,  maintained  a  defensive  war  in  the  Netherlands. 
Having  with  difficulty  obtained  the  consent  of  the  Dutch  to  this 
portion  of  his  project,  he  exercised  the  same  diplomatic  zeal,  with 
the  same  success  in  urging  the  king  of  Prussia,  and  other  princes 
of  the  empire,  to  increase  the  number  of  the  troops  which  they  sup- 
plied, and  to  post  them  in  places  convenient  for  his  own  intended 
movements. 

Marlborough  commenced  his  celebrated  march  on  the  19th  of 
May.  The  army  which  he  was  to  lead  had  been  assembled  by 
his  brother.  General  Churchill,  at  Bedburg,  not  far  from  Maes- 
tricht,  on  the  Meuse :  it  included  sixteen  thousand  English  troops, 
and  consisted  of  fifty-one  battalions  of  foot,  and  ninety-two 
squadrons  of  horse.  Marlborough  was  to  collect  and  join  with 
him  on  his  march  the  troops  of  Prussia,  Luneburg,  and  Hesse, 
quartered  on  the  Rhine,  and  eleven  Dutch  battalions  that  were 
stationed  at  Rothweil.  He  had  only  marched  a  single  day,  when 
the  series  of  interruptions,  complaints,  and  requisitions  from  the 
other  leaders  of  the  allies  began,  to  which  he  seemed  subjected 
throughout  his  enterprise,  and  which  would  have  caused  its  failure 
in  the  hands  of  any  one  not  gifted  with  the  firmness  and  the  ex- 


THE    BATTLE    OF    BLENHEIM  393 

quisite  temper  of  Marlborough.  One  specimen  of  these  annoyances, 
and  of  Marlborough's  mode  of  dealing  with  them,  may  suffice.  On 
his  encamping  at  KujDen  on  the  20th,  he  received  an  express  from 
Auverquerque  pressing  him  to  halt,  because  Villeroy,  who  com- 
manded the  French  army  in  Flanders,  had  quitted  the  lines  which 
he  had  been  occupying,  and  crossed  the  Meuse  at  Namur  with 
thirty-six  battahons  and  forty-five  squadrons,  and  was  threatening 
the  town  of  Huys.  At  the  same  time  Marlborough  received  letters 
from  the  Margrave  of  Baden  and  Count  Wratislaw,  who  com- 
manded the  Imperialist  forces  at  Stollhotfen,  near  the  left  bank 
of  the  Rhine,  stating  that  Tallard  had  made  a  movement,  as  if 
intending  to  cross  the  Rhine,  and  urging  him  to  hasten  his  march 
toward  the  lines  of  Stollhoffen.  Marlborough  was  not  diverted  by 
these  applications  from  the  prosecution  of  his  grand  design.  Con- 
scious that  the  army  of  Villeroy  would  be  too  much  reduced  to 
undertake  offensive  operations,  bj'  the  detachments  which  had 
already  been  made  toward  the  Rhine  and  those  which  must  fol- 
low his  own  march,  he  halted  onl}'  a  day  to  quiet  the  alarms  of 
Auverquerque.  To  satisfy  also  the  margrave,  he  ordered  the 
troops  of  Hompesch  and  Bulow  to  draw  toward  Philipsburg, 
though  with  private  injunctions  not  to  proceed  bej-ond  a  certain 
distance.  He  even  exacted  a  promise  to  the  same  effect  from 
Count  Wratislaw,  who  at  the  juncture  arrived  at  the  camp  to 
attend  him  during  the  whole  campaign. 

Marlborough  reached  the  Rhine  at  Coblentz,  where  he  crossed 
that  river,  and  then  marched  along  its  left  bank  to  Broubach  and 
Mentz.  His  march,  though  rapid,  was  admirably  conducted,  so  as 
to  save  the  troops  from  all  necessary  fatigue;  ample  supplies  of 
provisions  were  ready,  and  the  most  perfect  discipline  was  main- 
tained. By  degrees  Marlborough  obtained  more  re-enforcements 
from  the  Dutch  and  the  other  confederates,  and  he  also  was  left 
more  at  liberty  b}-  them  to  follow  his  own  course.  Indeed,  before 
even  a  blow  was  struck,  his  enterprise  had  paralyzed  the  enem}-, 
and  had  materially  relieved  Austria  from  the  pressure  of  the  war. 
Villeroy,  with  his  detachments  from  the  French  Flemish  army, 
was  completely  bewildered  by  Marlborough's  movements;  and, 
unable  to  divine  where  it  was   thai   the   English   gcncz'al  meant  to 


394  GREAT    BATTLES   OF    ALL   NATIONS 

strike  his  blow,  wasted  away  the  early  part  of  the  summer  between 
Flanders  and  the  Moselle  without  effecting  anything. 

Marshal  Tallard,  who  commanded  forty-five  thousand  French 
at  Strasburg,  and  who  had  been  destined  by  Louis  to  march  early 
in  the  year  into  Bavaria,  thought  that  Marlborough's  march  along 
the  Rhine  was  preliminary  to  an  attack  upon  Alsace ;  and  the  mar- 
shal therefore  kept  his  forty-five  thousand  men  back  in  order  to 
protect  France  in  that  quarter.  Marlborough  skillfully  encouraged 
his  apprehensions,  bj^  causing  a  bridge  to  be  constructed  across  the 
Rhine  at  Philipsburg,  and  by  making  the  Landgrave  of  Hesse  ad- 
vance his  artillery  at  Manheim,  as  if  for  a  siege  of  Landau.  Mean- 
while the  Elector  of  Bavaria  and  Marshal  Marsin,  suspecting  that 
Marlborough's  design  might  be  what  it  really  proved  to  be,  forbore 
to  press  upon  the  Austrians  opposed  to  them,  or  to  send  troops  into 
Hungaiy ;  and  they  kept  back  so  as  to  secure  their  communications 
with  France.  Thus,  when  Marlborough,  at  the  beginning  of  June, 
left  the  Rhine  and  marched  for  the  Danube,  the  numerous  hostile 
armies  were  uncombined  and  unable  to  check  him. 

"With  such  skill  and  science  had  this  enterprise  been  concerted 
that,  at  the  very  moment  when  it  assumed  a  specific  direction,  the 
enemy  was  no  longer  enabled  to  render  it  abortive.  As  the  march 
was  now  to  be  bent  toward  the  Danube,  notice  was  given  for  the 
Prussians,  Palatines,  and  Hessians,  who  were  stationed  on  the 
Rhine,  to  order  their  march  so  as  to  join  the  main  body  in  its 
progress.  At  the  same  time,  directions  were  sent  to  accelerate 
the  advance  of  the  Danish  auxiliaries,  who  were  marching  from 
the  Netherlands." 

Crossing  the  River  Neckar,  Marlborough  marched  in  a  south- 
eastern direction  to  Mundelshene,  where  he  had  his  first  personal 
interview  with  Prince  Eugene,  who  was  destined  to  be  his  col- 
league on  so  many  glorious  fields.  Thence,  through  a  difficult  and 
dangerous  country,  Marlborough  continued  his  march  against  the 
Bavarians,  whom  he  encountered  on  the  2d  of  July  on  the  heights 
of  the  Schullenberg,  near  Donauwert.  Marlborough  stormed  their 
intrenched  camp,  crossed  the  Danube,  took  several  strong  places  in 
Bavaria,  and  made  himself  completely  master  of  the  elector's  do- 
minions, except  the  fortified  cities  of  Munich  and  Augsburg.     But 


THE    BATTLE    OF   BLENHEIM  395 

the  elector's  army,  though  defeated  at  Donauwert,  was  still  numer- 
ous and  strong;  and  at  last  Marshal  Tallard,  when  thoroughly- 
apprised  of  the  real  nature  of  Marlborough's  movements,  crossed 
the  Rhine ;  and  being  suffered,  through  the  supineness  of  the  Ger- 
man general  at  Stollhoffen,  to  march  without  loss  through  the 
Black  Forest,  he  united  his  powerful  army  at  Biberbach,  near 
Augsburg,  with  that  of  the  elector  and  the  French  troops  under 
Marshal  Marsin,  who  had  previously  been  co-operating  with  the 
Bavarians. 

On  the  other  hand,  Marlborough  recrossed  the  Danube,  and  on 
the  11th  of  August  united  his  army  with  the  Imperialist  forces 
under  Prince  Eugene.  The  combined  armies  occupied  a  position 
near  Hochstadt,  a. little  higher  up  the  left  bank  of  the  Danube 
than  Donauwert,  the  scene  of  Marlborough's  recent  victory,  and 
almost  exactly  on  the  ground  where  Marshal  Villars  and  the  elector 
had  defeated  an  Austrian  army  in  the  preceding  year.  The  French 
marshals  and  the  elector  were  now  in  position  a  little  further  to  the 
east,  between  Blenheim  and  Lutzingen,  and  with  the  little  stream 
of  the  Nebel  between  them  and  the  troops  of  Marlborough  and  Eu- 
gene. The  Gallo-Bavarian  army  consisted  of  about  sixty  thousand 
men,  and  they  had  sixty-one  pieces  of  artillery.  The  army  of  the 
allies  was  about  fifty-six  thousand  strong,  ^vith  fifty-two  guns. 

Although  the  French  army  of  Italy  had  been  unable  to  pene- 
trate into  Austria,  and  although  the  masterly  strategy  of  Marl- 
borough had  hitherto  warded  off  the  destruction  with  which  the 
cause  of  the  allies  seemed  menaced  at  the  beginning  of  the  cam- 
paign, the  peril  was  still  most  serious.  It  was  absolutely  necessarj- 
for  Marlborough  to  attack  the  enemy  before  Villeroy  should  be 
roused  into  action.  There  was  nothing  to  stop  that  general  and 
his  army  from  marching  into  Franconia,  whence  the  aUies  drew 
their  principal  supplies;  and  besides  thus  distressing  them,  he 
might,  by  marching  on  and  joining  his  army  to  those  of  Tallard 
and  the  elector,  form  a  mass  which  would  overwhelm  the  force 
under  Marlborough  and  Eugene.  On  the  other  hand,  the  chances 
of  a  battle  seemed  perilous,  and  the  fatal  consequences  of  a  defeat 
were  certain.  The  disadvantage  of  the  alhes  in  point  of  niimber 
was  not  very  great,  but  still  it  was  not  to  bo  disregarded ;  and  the 


396  GREAT    BATTLES    OF    ALL    NATIONS 

advantage  which  the  enemy  seemed  to  have  in  the  composition  of 
their  troops  was  striking.  Tallard  and  Marsin  had  forty-five  thou- 
j^and  Frenchmen  under  them,  all  veterans  and  all  trained  to  act 
together;  the  elector's  own  troops  also  were  good  soldiers.  Marl- 
borough, like  Welhngton  at  Waterloo,  headed  an  arm}-,  of  which 
the  larger  proportion  consisted  not  of  English,  but  of  men  of  manj^ 
different  nations  and  many  different  languages.  He  was  also 
obliged  to  be  the  assailant  in  the  action,  and  thus  to  expose  his 
troops  to  comparativel}-  heavy  loss  at  the  commencement  of  the 
Ijattle,  while  the  enemy  would  fight  under  the  protection  of  the 
villages  and  lines  which  the}'  were  actively  engaged  in  strengthen- 
ing. The  consequences  of  a  defeat  of  the  confederated  army  must 
have  broken  up  the  Grand  Alliance,  and  realized  the  proudest  hopes 
of  the  French  king.  Mr.  Alison,  in  his  admirable  military  history 
of  the  Duke  of  Marlborough,  has  trulj-  stated  the  effects  which 
would  have  taken  place  if  France  had  been  successful  in  the  war; 
and  Avhen  the  position  of  the  confederates  at  the  time  when  Blen- 
heim was  fought  is  remembered — when  we  recollect  the  exhaustion 
of  Austria,  the  menacing  insurrection  of  Hungary,  the  feuds  and 
jealousies  of  the  German  princes,  the  strength  and  activity  of  the 
Jacobite  partj'  in  England,  and  the  imbecility  of  nearly  all  the 
Dutch  statesmen  of  the  time,  and  the  weakness  of  Holland  if  de- 
prived of  her  allies,  we  may  adopt  his  words  in  speculating  on 
what  would  have  ensued  if  France  had  been  victorious  in  the  bat- 
tle, and  "if  a  power,  animated  by  the  ambition,  guided  by  the 
fanaticism,  and  directed  by  the  ability  of  that  of  Louis  XIV.,  had 
gained  the  ascendenc}'^  in  Europe.  Bej'^ond  all  question,  a  univer- 
sal despotic  dominion  would  have  been  established  over  the  bodies, 
a  cruel  spiritual  thralldom  over  the  minds  of  men.  France  and 
Spain  united  under  Bourbon  princes  and  in  a  close  family  alliance 
— the  empire  of  Charlemagne  Avith  that  of  Charles  V. — the  power 
which  revoked  the  Edict  of  Nantes  and  perpetrated  the  massacre 
of  St.  Bartholomew,  with  that  which  banished  the  Moriscoes  and 
established  the  Inquisition,  would  have  proved  irresistible,  and  be- 
yond example  destructive  to  the  best  interests  of  mankind. 

"The  Protestants  might  have  been  driven,  like  the  pagan  heath- 
ens of  (jld  by  the  son  of  Pepin,  beyond  the  Elbe;   the  Stuart  race. 


THE    BATTLE    OF    BLENHEIM  397 

and  with  them  Romish  ascendency,  might  have  been  re-established 
in  England;  the  fire  lighted  by  Latimer  and  Ridley  might  have 
been  extinguished  in  blood ;  and  the  energy  breathed  by  religious 
freedom  into  the  Anglo-Saxon  race  might  have  expired.  The  des- 
tinies of  the  world  would  have  been  changed.  Europe,  instead  of 
a  variety  of  independent  states,  whose  mutual  hostility  kept  alive 
courage,  while  their  national  rivalry  stimulated  talent,  would  have 
sunk  into  the  slumber  attendant  on  universal  dominion.  The  colo- 
nial empire  of  England  would  have  withered  away  and  perished, 
as  that  of  Spain  has  done  in  the  grasp  of  the  Inquisition.  The 
Anglo-Saxon  race  would  have  been  arrested  in  its  mission  to  over- 
spread the  earth  and  subdue  it.  The  centralized  despotism  of  the 
Roman  empire  would  have  been  renewed  on  Continental  Europe; 
the  chains  of  Romish  tyranny,  and  with  them  the  general  infidehty 
of  France  before  the  Revolution,  would  have  extinguished  or  per- 
verted thought  in  the  British  Islands." 

Marlborough's  words  at  the  council  of  war,  when  a  battle  was 
resolved  on,  are  remarkable,  and  they  deserve  recording.  We 
know  them  on  the  authority  of  his  chaplain,  Mr.  (afterward 
Bishop)  Hare,  who  accompanied  him  throughout  the  campaign, 
and  in  whose  journal  the  biographers  of  Marlborough  have  found 
many  of  their  best  materials.  Marlborough's  words  to  the  officers 
who  remonstrated  with  him  on  the  seeming  temerity  of  attacking 
the  enemy  in  their  position  were,  "I  know  the  danger,  yet  a  battle 
is  absolutely  necessary,  and  I  rely  on  the  bravery  and  discipline  of 
the  troops,  which  will  make  amends  for  our  disadvantages,"  In 
the  evening  orders  were  issued  for  a  general  engagement,  and 
received  by  the  army  with  an  alacrity  which  justified  his  confi- 
dence. 

The  French  and  Bavarians  were  posted  behind  a  httle  stream 
called  the  Nebel,  which  runs  almost  from  north  to  south  into  the 
Danube  immediately  in  front  of  the  village  of  Blenheim.  The 
Nebel  flows  along  a  little  valley,  and  the  French  occupied  the 
rising  gi-ound  to  the  west  of  it.  The  village  of  Blenheim  was 
the  extreme  right  of  their  position,  and  the  village  of  Lutzingen, 
about  three  miles  north  of  Blenheim,  formed  their  left.  Beyond 
Lutzingen   are  the  rugged  high  grounds  of  the  Godd   Berg  and 


3^8  GREAT   BATTLES   OF   ALL   NATIONS 

Eich  Berg,  on  the  skirts  of  which  some  detachments  were  posted, 
so  as  to  secure  the  Gallo-Bavarian  position  from  being  turned  on 
the  left  flank.  The  Danube  secured  their  right  flank ;  and  it  was 
only  in  front  that  they  could  be  attacked.  The  villages  of  Blen- 
heim and  Lutzingen  had  been  strongly  palisadoed  and  intrenched ; 
Marshal  Tallard,  who  held  the  chief  command,  took  his  station  at 
Blenheim ;  the  elector  and  Marshal  Marsin  commanded  on  the  left, 
Tallard  garrisoned  Blenheim  with  twenty-six  battalions  of  French 
infantry  and  twelve  squadrons  of  French  cavalry.  Marsin  and 
the  elector  had  twenty-two  battalions  of  infantry  and  thirty-six 
squadrons  of  cavalry  in  front  of  the  village  of  Lutzingen.  The 
center  was  occupied  by  fourteen  battalions  of  infantry,  including 
the  celebrated  Irish  brigade.  These  were  posted  in  the  little  ham- 
let of  Oberglau,  which  lies  somewhat  nearer  to  Lutzingen  than  to 
Blenheim.  Eiglitj-  squadrons  of  cavalry  and  seven  battalions  of 
foot  were  ranged  between  Oberglau  and  Blenheim.  Thus  the 
French  position  vras  very  strong  at  each  extremity,  but  was  com- 
paratively weak  in  the  center.  Tallard  seems  to  have  relied  on  the 
swampy  state  of  the  part  of  the  valley  that  reaches  from  below 
Oberglau  to  Blenheim  for  preventing  any  serious  attack  on  this 
part  of  his  line. 

The  army  of  the  allies  was  formed  into  two  great  divisions,  the 
largest  being  commanded  by  the  duke  in  person,  and  being  destined 
to  act  against  Tallard,  while  Prince  Eugene  led  the  other  division, 
which  consisted  chiefly  of  cavalry,  and  was  intended  to  oppose  the 
enemy  under  Marsin  and  the  elector.  As  they  approached  the 
enemy,  Marlborough's  troops  formed  the  left  and  the  center,  while 
Eugene's  formed  the  right  of  the  entire  army.  Early  in  the  morn- 
ing of  the  13th  of  August  the  allies  left  their  own  camp  and  marched 
toward  the  enemy.  A  thick  haze  covered  the  ground,  and  it  was 
not  until  the  alUed  right  and  center  had  advanced  nearly  within 
cannon  shot  of  the  enemy  that  Tallard  was  aware  of  their  aj)- 
proach.  He  made  his  preparations  with  what  haste  he  could,  and 
about  eight  o'clock  a  heavy  fire  of  artillery  was  opened  from  the 
French  right  on  the  advancing  left  wing  of  the  British.  Marl- 
borough ordered  up  some  of  his  batteries  to  reply  to  it,  and  while 
the  columns  that  were  to  form  the  allied  left  and  center  deployed, 


THE    BATTLE    OF    BLENHEIM  399 

and  took  up  their  proper  stations  in  the  Hne,  a  warm  cannonade 
was  kept  up  by  the  guns  on  both  sides. 

The  ground  which  Eugene's  columns  had  to  traverse  was  pecul- 
iarly difficult,  especially  for  the  passage  of  the  artillery,  and  it  was 
nearly  midday  before  he  could  get  his  troops  into  line  opposite  to 
Lutzingen.  During  this  interval,  Marlborough  ordered  divine  ser- 
vice to  be  performed  by  the  chaplains  at  the  head  of  each  regiment, 
and  then  rode  along  the  lines,  and  found  both  officers  and  men  in 
the  highest  spirits,  and  waiting  impatiently  for  the  signal  for  the 
attack.  At  length  an  aid-de-camp  galloped  up  from  the  right  with 
the  welcome  news  that  Eugene  was  ready.  Marlborough  instantly 
sent  Lord  Cutts,  with  a  strong  brigade  of  infantry,  to  assault  the 
village  of  Blenheim,  while  he  himself  led  the  main  body  down  the 
eastward  slope  of  the  valley  of  the  Nebel,  and  prepared  to  effect 
the  passage  of  the  stream. 

The  assault  on  Blenheim,  though  bravely  made,  was  repulsed 
with  severe  loss,  and  Marlborough,  finding  how  strongly  that  vil- 
lage was  garrisoned,  desisted  from  any  further  attempts  to  carry 
it,  and  bent  all  his  energies  to  breaking  the  enemy's  line  between 
Blenheim  and  Oberglau.  Some  temporary  bridges  had  been  pre- 
pared, and  planks  and  fascines  had  been  collected ;  and  by  the  aid 
of  these,  and  a  little  simne  bridge  which  crossed  the  Nebel,  near  a 
hamlet  called  Unterglau,  that  lay  in  the  center  of  the  valley,  Marl- 
borough succeeded  in  getting  several  squadrons  across  the  N'ebel, 
though  it  was  divided  into  several  branches,  and  the  ground  be- 
tween them  was  soft,  and,  in  places,  little  better  than  a  mere 
marsh.  But  the  French  artillery  was  not  idle.  The  cannon  balls 
plunged  incessantly  among  the  advancing  squadrons  of  the  allies, 
and  bodies  of  French  cavalry  rode  frequently  do"WTi  from  the  west- 
ern ridge,  to  charge  them  before  they  had  time  to  form  on  the  firm 
ground.  It  was  only  by  supporting  his  men  by  fresh  troops,  and 
by  bringing  up  infantry,  who  checked  the  advance  of  the  enemy's 
horse  by  their  steady  fire,  that  Marlborough  was  able  to  save  his 
army  in  this  quarter  from  a  repulse,  which,  succeeding  the  failure 
of  the  attack  upon  Blenheim,  would  probably  have  been  fatal  to 
the  allies.  By  degrees,  his  cavalry  struggled  over  the  blood- 
stained  streams;   the  infantry  were  also  now  brought  across,   so 


400  GREAT    BATTLES    OF  ALL    NATIONS 

as  to  keep  in  check  the  French  troops  who  held  Blenheim,  and 
who,  when  no  longer  assailed  in  front,  had  begun  to  attack  the 
alhes  on  their  left  with  considerable  effect. 

Marlborough  had  thus  at  last  succeeded  in  drawing  up  the 
whole  left  wing  of  his  army  beyond  the  Nebel,  and  was  about  to 
press  forward  with  it,  when  he  was  called  away  to  another  part  of 
the  field  by  a  disaster  that  had  befallen  his  center.  The  Prince 
of  Holstein  Beck  had,  with  eleven  Hanoverian  battalions,  passed 
the  Nebel  opposite  to  Oberglau,  when  he  was  charged  and  utterly 
routed  by  the  Irish  brigade  which  held  that  village.  The  Irish 
ckove  the  Hanoverians  back  with  heavy  slaughter,  broke  com- 
pletely through  the  line  of  the  alhes,  and  nearly  achieved  a  suc- 
cess as  brilliant  as  that  which  the  same  brigade  afterward  gained 
at  Fontenoy.  But  at  Blenheim  their  ardor  in  pursuit  led  them  too 
far.  Marlborough  came  up  in  person,  and  dashed  in  upon  the  ex- 
posed Hank  of  the  brigade  with  some  squadrons  of  British  cavalry. 
The  Irish  reeled  back,  and  as  they  strove  to  regain  the  height  of 
Oberglau,  their  column  was  raked  through  and  through  by  the  fire 
of  three  battalions  of  the  allies,  which  Marlborough  had  summoned 
up  from  the  reserve.  Marlborough  having  re-established  the  order 
and  communications  of  the  allies  in  this  quarter,  now,  as  he  re- 
turned to  his  o\ATi  left  wing,  sent  to  learn  how  his  colleague  fared 
against  Marsin  and  the  elector,  and  to  inform  Eugene  of  his  own 
success. 

Eugene  had  hitherto  not  been  equally  fortunate.  He  had  made 
three  attacks  on  the  enemy  opposed  to  him,  and  had  been  thrice 
driven  back.  It  was  only  by  his  own  desperate  personal  exertions, 
and  the  remarkable  steadiness  of  the  regiments  of  Prussian  in- 
fantry, which  were  under  him,  that  he  was  able  to  save  his  wing 
from  being  totally  defeated.  But  it  was  on  the  southern  part  of 
the  battlefield,  on  the  ground  which  Marlborough  had  won  beyond 
the  Nebel  with  such  difficulty,  that  the  crisis  of  the  battle  was  to 
be  decided. 

Like  Hannibal,  Marlborough  relied  principally  (m  his  cavalry 
for  achieving  his  decisive  successes,  and  it  was  by  his  cavalry  that 
Blenheim,  the  greatest  of  his  victories,  was  won.  The  battle  had 
lasted  till  five  in  the  afternoon.     Marlborough  had  now  eight  thou- 


THE    BATTLE    OF   BLENHEIM 


401 


sand  horsemen  drawn  up  in  two  lines,  and  in  the  most  perfect  order 
for  a  general  attack  on  the  enemy's  line  along  the  space  between 
Blenheim  and  Oberglau.  The  infantry  was  drawn  up  in  battalions 
in  their  rear,  so  as  to  support  them  if  repulsed,  and  to  keep  in  check 
the  large  masses  of  the  French  that  still  occupied  the  village  of 
Blenheim.  Tallard  now  interlaced  his  squadrons  of  cavalry  with 
battalions  of  infantry,  and  Marlborough,  by  a  corresponding  move- 
ment, brouglit  several  regiments  of  infantry,  and  some  pieces  of 
artillery,  to  his  front  line  at  intervals  between  the  bodies  of  horse. 
A  little  after  five,  Marlborough  commenced  the  decisive  movement, 
and  the  allied  cavalry,  strengthened  and  supported  by  foot  and 


PLAN  OF  THE  BATTLE  OP  BLENHEIM. 


guns,  advanced  slowly  from  the  lower  ground  near  the  Nebel  up 
the  slope  to  where  the  French  cavalry,  ten  thousand  strong,  awaited 
them.  On  riding  over  the  summit  of  the  acclivity,  the  allies  were 
received  with  so  hot  a  fire  from  the  French  artillery  and  small  arms 
that  at  first  the  cavalry  recoiled,  but  without  abandoning  the  high 
ground.  The  guns  and  the  infantry  which  they  had  brought  with 
them  maintained  the  contest  with  spirit  and  effect.  The  French 
fire  seemed  to  slacken.  Marlborough  instantly  oi-dered  a  charge 
along  the  line.  The  allied  cavalry  galloped  forward  at  the  enemy's 
squadrons,  and  the  hearts  of  the  French  horsemen  failed  them. 
Discharging  their  carbines  at  an  idle  distance,  they  wheeled  round 


402  GREAT   BATTLES    OF  ALL    NATIONS 

and  spurred  from  the  field,  leaving  the  nine  infantry  battalions 
of  their  comrades  to  be  ridden  down  by  the  torrent  of  the  allied 
cavalry.  The  battle  was  now  won.  Tallard  and  Marsin,  severed 
from  each  other,  thought  only  of  retreat.  Tallard  drew  up  the 
squadrons  of  horse  that  he  had  left,  in  a  line  extended  toward 
Blenheim,  and  sent  orders  to  the  infantry  in  that  village  to  leave 
it  and  join  him  without  delay.  But,  long  ere  his  orders  could  be 
obeyed,  the  conquering  squadrons  of  Marlborough  had  wheeled  to 
the  left  and  thundered  down  on  the  feeble  array  of  the  French 
marshal.  Part  of  the  force  which  Tallard  had  drawn  up  for  this 
last  effort  was  driven  into  the  Danube ;  part  fled  with  their  general 
to  the  village  of  Sonderheim,  where  they  were  soon  surrounded  by 
the  '  .ctorious  allies,  and  compelled  to  surrender.  Meanwhile,  Eu- 
gvue  had  renewed  his  attack  upon  the  Gallo-Bavarian  left,  and 
Marsin,  finding  his  colleague  utterly  routed,  and  his  own  right 
flank  uncovered,  prepared  to  retreat.  He  and  the  elector  suc- 
ceeded in  withdrawing  a  considerable  part  of  their  troops  in  tol- 
erable order  to  Dillingen;  but  the  large  body  of  French  who 
garrisoned  Blenheim  were  left  exposed  to  certain  destruction. 
Marlborough  speedily  occupied  all  the  outlets  from  the  village 
with  his  victorious  troops,  and  then,  collecting  his  artillery  round 
it,  he  commenced  a  cannonade  that  speedily  would  have  destroyed 
Blenheim  itself  and  all  who  were  in  it.  After  several  gallant  but 
unsuccessful  attempts  to  cut  their  way  through  the  allies,  the 
French  in  Blenheim  were  at  length  compelled  to  surrender  at 
discretion;  and  twenty-four  battalions  and  twelve  squadrons,  with 
all  their  officers,  laid  down  their  arms,  and  became  the  captives 
of  Marlborough. 

"The  conquerors,"  says  Voltaire,  "had  about  five  thousand 
killed  and  eight  thousand  wounded,  the  greater  part  being  on  the 
side  of  Prince  Eugene.  The  French  army  was  almost  entirely 
destroyed :  of  sixty  thousand  men,  so  long  victorious,  there  never 
reassembled  more  than  twenty  thousand  effective.  About  twelve 
thousand  killed,  fourteen  thousand  prisoners,  all  the  cannon,  a  pro- 
digious number  of  colors  and  standards,  all  the  tents  and  equipages, 
the  general  of  the  army,  and  one  thousand  two  hundred  officers  of 
mark  in  the  power  of  the  conqueror,  signalized  that  day!" 


CHAPTER   XVII 
RAMILLIES,  OUDENARDE,  AND   MALPLAQUET 

MARLBOROUGHS  HISTORIC  STRUGGLES  WHICH   RESULTED  IN  THE 
DEFEAT  OF  THE   FRENCH 

A.  D.   1708, 

THE  \4ctory  at  Blenheim  was  succeeded  by  the  historic  bat- 
tles of  Ramillies,  Oudenarde,  and  Malplaquet.  That  of 
Ramillies  was  productive  of  great  results.  The  king  of 
Prussia,  who  had  hitherto  kept  aloof  and  suspended  the  march 
of  his  troops,  effected  a  reconcihation  with  the  Dutch  and  the 
court  of  Vienna,  and  the  elector  of  Hanover  threw  himself  heart- 
ily into  the  alliance  against  Louis  XIV. 

Crossing  the  Dyle  with  his  whole  army,  Marlborough  received 
the  submission  of  Brussels,  the  capital  of  Brabant,  whose  inhabi- 
tants expressed  their  satisfaction  at  their  deliverance  from  the 
French,  and  their  submission  to  Charles  III.  of  Spain  as  their 
legitimate  sovereign.  Mechlin,  Alost,  and  other  cities  of  Brabant 
submitted  to  the  conqueror,  who,  crossing  the  Scheldt  into  Flan- 
ders, received  the  surrender  of  Ghent,  Bruges  and  Oudenarde,  a 
very  strong  place  which  had  successfully  stood  a  siege  in  the  last 
campaign  against  sixty  thousand  men.  These  successes  were  fol- 
lowed, on  the  6th  of  June,  1706,  by  the  submission  of  Antwerp, 
whence  Marlborough  marched,  with  fifty  battalions  of  infantry  and 
ninety-nine  squadrons  of  horse,  to  lay  siege  to  Ostend,  a  place  of 
such  strength  that,  in  the  previous  century,  it  had  sustained  a  siege 
of  three  years  against  Spinola,  the  first  warrior  of  his  age,  who  lost 
heavily  in  reducing  the  place.  Assisted  by  the  fleet,  the  batteries 
opened  fire  on  Juh'  3,  and  within  three  days  the  garrison  of  five 
thousand  men  capitulated,  the  loss  of  the  besiegers  being  only 
five  hundred  men.  » 

(403) 


404  GREAT    BATTLES    OF    ALL    NATIONS 

The  campaign  of  1706  was  closed  by  the  sui-render,  on  the  25th 
of  August,  of  Menin,  considered  one  of  the  masterpieces  of  the 
celebrated  engineer,  Vauban,  after  a  desperate  conflict,  in  which 
three  hundred  men  were  slain,  the  loss  of  the  garrison  being  one 
thousand  five  hundred.  With  the  surrender  of  the  minor  towns  of 
Dendermond  and  Ath,  operations  ceased  for  the  winter,  and  the 
duke,  distributing  his  troops  in  quarters,  proceeded  to  London, 
where  he  received  an  enthusiastic  reception  from  the  populace, 
and  the  thanks  of  Parliament  were  voted  to  him. 

Nothing  of  importance  Avas  effected  by  Marlborough  during 
the  campaign  of  1707,  but  the  following  year  was  memorable  for 
the  great  victory  of  Oudenarde.  On  the  2d  of  April,  1708,  Marl- 
borough landed  at  the  Hague,  where  he  met  his  old  colleague. 
Prince  Eugene  of  Savoy,  with  whom  he  concerted  plans  for  the 
ensuing  campaign.  The  ostensible  object  was  to  form  two  armies, 
one  in  the  Netherlands,  under  Marlborough,  the  other  on  the 
Moselle,  led  by  Eugene,  as  though  with  the  purpose  of  penetrat- 
ing Lorraine,  but  the  real  project  was  to  unite  their  forces  by  a 
rapid  march,  and  give  battle  to  the  French  in  the  Netherlands. 
At  this  point  Louis  had  concentrated  a  great  force,  under  the  Duke 
of  Burgundy,  who  was  placed  under  the  tutelage  of  the  skillful 
and  famous  Marshal  Vendome;  while  the  command  in  Dauphine 
was  intrusted  to  Marshal  Villars,  and  that  on  the  Upper  Rhine  to 
the  elector  of  Bavaria  and  Marshal  Berwick.  Having  paid  a  visit 
to  Hanover,  in  company  with  Prince  Eugene,  to  conciliate  the 
elector,  who  was  jealous  of  the  latter  commander,  Marlborough 
joined  the  army  at  Ghent  on  the  9th  of  May,  and  having  completed 
his  arrangements,  proceeded  to  Brussels  to  concert  measures  with 
the  veteran  General  Overkirk.  Eugene,  acting  on  the  plan  previ- 
ously arranged,  made  forced  marches  for  the  Moselle,  in  order  to 
effect  a  junction  with  Marlborough  at  Terbank. 

Vendome,  meantime,  put  into  execution  a  plan  displaying  equal 
audacity  and  skill.  Having  diverted  the  attention  of  Marlborough 
by  feints  on  the  side  of  Louvain,  on  the  5th  of  July  he  surprised 
Ghent,  which  commanded  the  course  of  the  Lys  and  the  Scheldt, 
and  Bruges,  and  crossing  the  Dender,  invested  Oudenarde  on  the 
0th  of  July.     At  this  crisis  of  events  Eugene  joined  his  illustrious 


RAMILLIES,  OUDENARDE,  AND    MALPLAQUET        405 

colleague,  and  was  welcomed  by  Marlborough  with  tho  words,  "I 
am  not  without  hopes  of  congi-atulating  your  highness  on  a  great 
victory,  for  my  troops  will  be  animated  by  the  presence  of  so  dis- 
tinguished a  commander. "  With  characteristic  promptitude,  Marl- 
borough marched  from  Asch  at  two  in  the  morning  on  the  9th  of 
July,  and  after  covering  five  leagues  before  noon,  halted  until  the 
evening,  when  the  march  was  continued  all  night,  and  the  duke 
anticipated  Vendome's  intention  to  cover  the  siege  of  Oudenarde 
by  occupjnng  the  strong  camp  of  Lessines  on  the  Dender,  by  cross- 
ing that  stream  just  as  the  heads  of  the  hostile  columns  prepared 
to  descend  the  heights  with  thau  object.  Foiled  by  the  more  rapid 
strategy  of  his  antagonist,  Vendomc  turned  to  the  right  and  hast- 
ened toward  Gavre,  with  a  view  to  shelter  behind  the  line  of  the 
Scheldt. 

During  the  night  of  the  10th  of  Juh',  Marlborough  and  Eugene 
prepared  for  the  engagement,  although  they  had  a  space  of  no  less 
than  fifteen  miles  to  march,  and  a  broad  and  rapid  stream  to  cross, 
and  were  in  doubt  what  course  the  enemy  would  pursue.  These 
illustrious  men  evinced  the  same  promptitude,  decision  and  public 
spirit  which  had  marked  their  operations  on  the  Danube,  and  they 
were  ably  seconded  by  their  veteran  colleague,  Overkirk,  Acting 
on  the  military  axiom  that  an  army  attacked  in  retreat,  or  in  cross- 
ing a  river,  loses  all  the  advantages  of  order  and  discipline,  they 
pushed  forward  to  the  Schedt,  to  come  in  contact  with  the  enemy 
at  the  moment  of  their  passage. 

Preparatory  to  this  moA'ement,  Cadogan,  one  of  the  most  trusted 
of  the  duke's  generals,  and  Rantzau  were  detached  with  a  strong 
advanced  guard  of  sixteen  battalions,  consisting  of  the  brigades 
of  Sabine,  Plettenberg,  and  Evans,  eight  squadrons  of  German 
dragoons,  and  thirty-two  pieces  of  artillery,  with  orders  to  clear 
the  roads  and  throw  bridges  over  the  Scheldt  in  the  vicinity  of 
(Oudenarde.  Departing  at  the  dawn  of  the  11th,  they  were  fol- 
lowed at  eight  in  the  morning  by  the  whole  army,  which  marched 
in  four  columns  by  the  left,  each  line  forming  two  columns,  the 
cavalry  leading  the  way,  and  the  artillery  in  the  rear. 

At  half-past  ten  General  Cadogan  reached  the  right  bank  of 
the  Scheldt,  and  commenced  the  construction  of  bridges.     About 


4o6       GREAT  BATTLES  OF  ALL  NATIONS 

the  same  time,  the  hostile  columns  drew  toward  Gavre,  two 
leagues  below.  Their  bridges  being  already  prepared,  the  French 
advanced  guard,  led  on  by  the  Marquis  de  Biron,  passed  leisurely 
over,  without  suspecting  the  approach  of  the  allies ;  and  some  of 
the  soldiers  were  even  detached  to  collect  forage. 

The  bridges  were  completed  about  midday.  As  the  heads  of  the 
columns  of  cavalry  were  drawing  near,  Rantzau  passed  the  Scheldt 
with  the  horse,  and  was  followed  by  Cadogan  with  twelve  bat- 
tahons,  the  other  four  being  left  to  guard  the  pontoons.  They 
advanced  to  the  top  of  the  high  ground,  between  Eyne  and  Bevere, 
and  formed  at  the  extremity  of  the  amphitheater,  the  infantry  op- 
posite Eyne  and  the  cavalry  extending  on  the  left  toward  the 
inclosures  near  Schaerken. 

Cadogan,  proceeding  to  reconnoiter,  saw  several  squadrons  of 
the  enemj'  on  the  further  side  of  the  plain,  and  observed  their  for- 
aging parties  scattered  about  Heume  and  Ruj-broek.  Thereupon 
he  sent  the  cavalry  to  attack  them,  and  drove  them  toward  Syng- 
hem,  taking  several  prisoners.  But  the  alarm  being  given,  Biron 
advanced  ^ith  twelve  squadrons,  repulsed  the  assailants,  and 
reached  the  windmill  behind  the  village  of  Eyne.  Here  he  saw 
the  allied  advanced  force  in  position,  and  observing  at  the  same 
time  the  battalions  posted  near  the  bridges,  and  the  columns  of 
cavalry  in  the  act  of  crossing,  he  withdrew,  to  avoid  the  shock 
of  the  whole  confederate  army,  the  greater  part  of  which,  he  sup- 
posed, had  already  crossed  the  river. 

The  celerity  of  Marlborough,  indeed,  gave  color  to  this  conject- 
ure, for,  hearing  on  his  way  that  the  enemy  were  crossing  at  Gavre, 
he  became  alarmed  for  the  safety  of  his  advance.  Directing  the 
flank  column  of  cavalry  to  guard  against  the  movements  which 
he  supposed  the  enemy  might  make  on  his  line  of  march,  he  and 
Eugene  pressed  forward  at  the  head  of  the  second  column,  which 
consisted  entirely  of  Prussians.  They  proceeded  part  of  the  way 
at  full  gallop,  and  reached  the  bridges  at  the  moment  when  the 
Marquis  de  Biron  had  advanced  to  reconnoiter  the  assailants  by 
whom  his  foragers  had  been  so  unexpectedly  attacked. 

The  apparition  of  the  allies  created  a  great  sensation  through- 
out the  French  ranks.     Vendome,  however,  did  not  partake  of  the 


RAMILLIES,   OUDENARDE,  AND   MALPLAQUET        407 

alarm  which  seems  to  have  seized  the  rest  of  the  commanders. 
From  the  distant  clouds  of  dust  which  marked  the  course  of  the 
moving  colimans,  he  judged  that  the  main  body  was  yet  half  a 
league  from  the  Scheldt,  and  that  there  was  still  sufficient  time  to 
attack  the  confederates  before  they  could  form  in  order  of  battle. 
To  secure  the  plain  of  Heurne,  and  cover  the  deplojmient  of  his 
lines,  he  directed  Pfeffer  with  seven  battalions  to  occupy  the  vil- 
lage; and  the  cavalry  of  the  right,  composed  of  jjart  of  the  house- 
hold troops,  to  draw  up  near  the  windmill.  This  was  done  with 
the  object  of  making  further  dispositions,  which,  however,  the 
Duke  of  Burgundy  countermanded. 

Meanwhile  Pfeffer,  instead  of  occupying  Heurne,  advanced  and 
took  post  at  Eyne,  thus  placing  himself  beyond  the  reach  of  pro- 
tection; and  the  household  horse,  who  had  orders  to  cover  him, 
were  afterward  recalled,  and  only  a  few  squadrons  left  in  their 
stead, 

Marlborough  and  Eugene  lost  no  time  in  taking  advantage  of 
the  enemy's  indecision,  and  jointly  superintended  the  passage  of 
the  Scheldt,  posting  the  troops  as  fast  as  they  arrived.  About 
3  P.M.  the  head  of  the  first  column  of  cavalry,  and  the  whole  in- 
fantry of  the  right  wing,  reached  the  bridges.  The  four  battalions, 
who  had  hitherto  guarded  the  bridges,  marched  to  join  the  ad- 
vanced guard,  and  General  Cadogan  seized  the  favorable  moment 
to  strike  the  first  blow.  Observing  the  insulated  position  of  Pfeffer 's 
brigade,  he  advanced  with  twelve  battalions  and  the  cavalry  of 
Rantzau.  Brigadier  Sabine,  at  the  head  of  foui*  English  battaUons, 
led  the  attack.  They  descended  the  hill,  and  forded  the  rivulet 
near  Eyne,  while  the  cavalry  passed  above  and  turned  the  rear  of 
the  village.  A  sharp  conflict  ensued,  but  the  enemy  were  soon 
beaten,  and  three  battalions,  with  the  bi'igadier,  were  made  prison- 
ers. The  rest  were  either  killed  or  intercepted  in  their  flight  near 
the  windmill.  Rantzau,  with  his  eight  squadrons  of  Hanoverians, 
then  advanced  upon  the  plain  of  Heurne,  to  charge  the  cavalry, 
who  were  driven  cross  the  Norken,  on  to  their  own  army,  which 
was  forming  on  the  further  side.  Twelve  standards  fell  into  the 
hands  of  the  victors.  The  electoral  prince  of  Hanover,  afterward 
George  II.,  animated  the  troops  by  charging  at  the  head  of  a 


4o8  GREAT    BATTLES    OF   ALL  "NATIONS 

squadron,  and  had  a  horse  shot  under  him,  Avhile  Count  Lusky 
was  killed  in  the  charge. 

As  a  general  action  could  not  now  be  evaded,  the  enemy  drew 
up  on  some  high  ground,  in  two  lines,  with  a  reserve.  The  greater 
part  of  the  cavalry  was  posted  on  the  right,  opposite  Oycke,  the 
left  extended  to  behind  MuUem,  the  front  being  covered  by  the 
Norken  and  the  defiles  along  its  bank.  Had  they  remained  in  this 
position,  it  is  doubtful  whether  the  allies,  fatigued  b}-  a  long  march 
of  five  leagues,  would  have  ventured  to  risk  an  attack  that  even- 
ing, and  the}'  might  have  retired  in  the  night.  But  the  Duke  of 
Burgund}*  and  other  officers,  who  had  intrigued  against  Marshal 
Yendome,  were  now  as  impatient  to  attack  as  they  were  before 
desirous  to  remain  on  the  defensive. 

According!}',  at  four  in  the  afternoon,  the  allies  not  yet  being 
in  position,  the  Duke  of  Burgundy  directed  General  Grimaldi  to 
lead  sixteen  squadrons  across  the  Norken,  apparently  for  the 
purpose  of  reconnoitering.  Grimaldi  came  to  the  brink  of  a 
rivulet,  but  observing  the  Prussian  cavalry  already  formed,  and 
the  British  advancing,  fell  back,  though  Vendome,  disapproving 
of  this  movement,  directed  his  left  to  advance  simultaneously, 
with  the  vie^v  of  bringing  both  wings  into  action  together.  But 
the  Duke  of  Burgundy  again  countermanded  his  order,  and  the 
left  wing  of  the  French  remained  in  position. 

Marlborough,  observing  the  right  wing  and  center  of  the  enemy 
passing  the  defiles  in  their  front,  and  forming  irregularly,  judged 
that  they  intended  to  attack  him  by  the  right,  and,  under  cover  of 
this  maneuver,  bring  their  left  into  the  plain  of  Heurne,  where 
Kantzau's  cavalry,  and  some  infantry  of  General  Cadogan,  were 
yet  unsupported.  Two  battalions  of  the  four  who  had  covered  the 
bridges  had  been  already  posted  in  the  hedges  near  Groenevelde, 
where  the  first  attack  was  expected.  To  keep  the  hostile  right  in 
check,  they  were  re-enforced  by  the  twelve  battalions  of  Cadogan, 
who  had  partly  occupied  Eyne  and  Heurne.  Marlborough  himself 
advanced  by  Heurne,  with  the  Prussian  horse,  and  drew  them  up 
in  front  of  the  enemy.  While  this  movement  was  in  progress,  the 
whole  first  column  of  the  first  line  of  the  right  wing,  consisting 
cntireb'  of  British,  formed  rapidly  on  the  height  of  Beverc,  whei"c 


RAMILLIES,  OUDENARDE,   AND    MALPLAQUET        409 

the  duke  anticipated  an  attack  in  force  by  the  enemy's  right 
and  center. 

At  this  moment  thirty  battahons  of  the  enemy's  right,  among 
■whom  were  the  French  and  Swiss  fout-guards,  and  other  choice 
troops,  debouched,  as  had  been  expected;  and,  after  some  hesi- 
tation, attacked  the  four  battalions  posted  at  Groenevelde,  before 
Cadogan's  corps  could  arrive  to  sustain  them.  This  small  force, 
however,  disputed  the  edge  of  the  streamlet,  and  maintained  their 
ground  until  the  other  battalions  arrived  on  their  right  and  boldl}' 
attacked  the  enemy's  center.  The  Duke  of  Argyle,  Avho  led  the 
British  infantry,  now  hastened  into  action  with  twenty  battalions 
and  a  few  guns.  His  left  took  post  near  Schaerken,  and  his  right 
joined  the  infantry  already  engaged  near  Ruybroek  and  Groene- 
velde. A  heavy  musketry  combat  ensued,  each  battalion  being- 
engaged  separately  in  the  fields  and  inclosures  which  border  the 
rivulet.  The  remaining  part  of  the  enemy's  right,  following  the 
direction  of  the  corps  engaged,  gradually  prolonged  their  line,  till 
they  outflanked  some  Prussian  infantry  on  the  left  of  the  British, 
and  after  pushing  them  back,  occupied  Barwaen  and  the  farm  of 
Banlancy.  But  Count  Lottum,  with  the  second  column  of  in- 
fantrj^  consisting  of  Prussians  and  Hanoverians,  had  now  formed, 
and  at  six  o'clock  advanced  in  his  turn,  recovered  the  lost  ground 
and  drove  the  enemy  across  the  rivulet.  As  the  lines  extended, 
and  the  number  of  troops  augmented,  the  action  became  general. 

Marlborough  and  Eugene,  who  had  hitherto  remained  together, 
now  separated,  the  duke  placing  under  his  orders  the  right,  com- 
prising the  British  troops,  whose  valor  the  prince  had  often  wit- 
nessed and  applauded.  His  grace  foresaw  that  the  stress  of  the 
action  would  lie  in  this  quarter,  and  therefore  ordered  Count  Lot- 
tum, witht  wenty  battalions,  to  prolong  his  right  and  strengthen 
the  wing  under  Eugene.  The  opening  which  this  movement  occa- 
sioned between  the  castle  of  Bevere  and  Schaerken  was  filled  up 
by  eighteen  battalions,  drawn  from  the  right  of  the  left  wing,  who 
had  just  reached  the  scene  of  action.  Thus,  nearly  sixty  battalions 
fought  under  Eugene,  while  only  twenty  remained  under  the  per- 
sonal direction  of  the  duke  in  the  center. 

The  prince  was  hard  pressed  when  the  re-enforcement  arrived  • 


4IO  GREAT   BATTLES    OF   ALL   NATIONS 

for  Cadogan's  corps,  occupying  a  kind  of  focus  in  the  center  of  the 
hostile  position,  had  been  driven  out  of  the  courts  and  avenues  near 
Harleham  into  the  plain.  With  this  accession  of  strength  Eugene, 
however,  again  advanced  and  broke  the  first  line  of  the  enem}'. 
General  Natznier  took  immediate  advantage  of  the  disorder,  and 
charged,  at  the  head  of  the  Prussian  cavalry-,  through  the  second 
line  into  the  small  plain.  Here  his  career  was  checked  by  the 
household  squadrons,  and  his  ranks  swept  by  a  terrible  fire  of 
musketry.  After  losing  half  his  men,  and  receiving  himself 
several  wounds,  he  escaped  vrith  the  utmost  diflficulty  by  leaping 
over  a  broad  ditch. 

While  the  action  thus  raged  with  various  success  on  the  right, 
Marlborough,  with  the  Hanoverian  and  Dutch  battalions,  pressed 
forward  from  the  farm  of  Banlancy  and  the  hamlet  of  Barwaen. 
The  enemy  disputed  everj'-  inch  of  ground,  and  set  fire  to  some 
houses  which  thej'  could  no  longer  defend;  but  the  duke  passed 
the  rivulet,  and,  firing  one  inclosure  after  another,  reached  the 
hamlet  of  Diepenbeck.  Here  he  encountered  such  an  obstinate 
resistance  that  his  troops  were  compelled  to  pause.  But  now  his 
military  instinct  came  to  his  aid.  His  quick  eye  discovered  that 
the  right  of  the  enemy  extended  only  to  the  steep  acclivity  of  the 
hill  of  Oycke,  and  that  they  had  quite  neglected  to  occupy  the 
commanding  gi-ound  above.  Concluding  that  their  right  might  be 
turned  and  cut  off  from  the  main  bod}^  he  requested  Marshal 
Overkirk,  who  had  brought  up  the  rear  with  nearly  all  the  cav- 
alrj^  of  the  left,  and  twenty  battalions  of  Dutch  and  Danes,  to 
execute  the  bold  maneuver. 

This  veteran,  unmindful  of  his  age  and  bodily  infirmities, 
obeyed  with  equal  alacrity  and  spirit.  On  the  last  column  of 
infantry  reaching  its  ground,  and  deploying  for  battle,  he  directed 
General  Week,  with  the  brigade  of  Dutch  guards,  to  force  the 
ravines  near  the  castle  of  Bevere.  The  troops  moved  rapidly  to 
the  attack,  and,  after  a  vigorous  conflict,  drove  the  enemy  into 
the  coppices  which  fringe  the  banks  of  the  rivulet.  The  Prince 
of  Orange  and  General  Oxenstiern  instantly  followed  with  the 
remainder  of  the  twenty  battalions,  ascended  the  hill,  sustained 
by  the  cavalry  under  Overkirk  and  Count  Tilly,  and  formed  with 


RAMILLIES,  OUDENARDE,  AND    MALPLAQUET        411 

the  left  behind  the  hill  of  Oycke.  Finding  no  enemy  on  the 
summit,  the  whole  mass  charged  front  to  the  right,  and  extended 
their  left  toward  De  Keele.  The  allied  army  thus  formed  a  vast 
semicircle  round  the  right  wing  of  the  enemy,  who  could  on\y 
partially  communicate  with  their  center  and  left  through  the 
ravines  and  passes  of  Marolen. 

This  maneuver  being  announced  to  the  duke,  he  urged  Marshal 
Overkirk  to  make  a  further  effort  with  his  left,  and  cut  off  the 
remaining  communications  of  the  enemy.  The  execution  of  this 
movement  was  intrusted  to  the  young  Prince  of  Orange,  whose 
impetuous  spirit  panted  for  distinction.  Accompanied  by  General 
Oxenstiern,  he  rushed  with  the  infantry  down  the  height  overlook- 
ing Marolen,  penetrated  the  defiles,  and,  forming  in  two  lines,  was 
sustained  by  twelve  squadrons  of  Danes,  under  Count  Tilly.  Here 
they  encountered  a  corps  of  French  grenadiers,  supported  by  the 
household  cavalry,  and  covered  by  the  hedges  which  skirted  the 
extremity  of  the  plain,  A  series  of  volleys  and  charges  ensued, 
and  the  enem}^  were  struck  with  dismay  by  the  unexpected  attack 
in  their  rear. 

Cut  off  from  their  own  army,  the  hostile  troops  slackened  in 
their  resistance,  and  were  at  length  broken  and  driven  back  on 
each  other.  At  this  moment  the  French  dragoons  made  a  noble 
effort  to  cover  the  retreat  of  the  infantry  and  of  the  household 
squadrons,  but  their  valor  was  in  vain,  and  the  greater  part  of 
seven  regiments  were  either  killed  or  taken,  while  the  gendarmerie 
suffered  no  less  severely  from  the  charge  of  the  Danes. 

Meanwhile  Marlborough  had  continued  to  gain  ground,  and  at 
length  established  his  line  between  Chobon  and  Diepenbeck.  Ven- 
dome,  indeed,  made  a  personal  effort  to  avert  the  fate  of  his  army 
by  dismounting  from  his  horse,  and  leading  the  infantry  near 
Mullem;  but  his  exertions  were  unavailing.  Inferior  in  numbers, 
and  entangled  by  the  intricacy  of  the  ground,  they  could  make 
no  impression;  while  the  left  wing  was  thrown  out  of  action  by 
the  defiles  and  river  in  their  front,  and  held  in  check  by  the 
British  cavalry,  which  was  drawn  up  in  perfect  order  on  the 
plain  of  Heurne. 

In  this  crisis,  darkness  enveloped  the  contending  hosts,  and  the 


412  GREAT   BATTLES   OF    ALL    NATIONS 

positions  were  discernible  only  by  the  flashes  of  musketry  which 
rolled  round  the  narrowing  circle  of  the  devoted  army,  till  the 
right  of  Eugene  and  the  left  of  the  Prince  of  Orange  approached 
the  same  point.  They  mistook  each  other  for  enemies,  and  the 
result  might  have  been  deplorable  had  not  the  generals  put  a 
timely  stop  to  the  fire.  About  nine,  orders  were  given  for  the 
troops  to  halt  as  they  stood,  and  suffer  the  enemy  to  escape  rather 
than  expose  themselves  to  mutual  destruction.  To  this  order  num- 
bers of  the  enemy  owed  their  safety.  Favored  by  the  increasing 
darkness,  some  thousands  slipped  unperceived  through  an  opening 
in  the  allied  lines,  near  the  castle  of  Bevere,  and  directed  their 
flight  toward  the  French  frontier;  others  endeavored  to  rejoin 
their  left  wing  in  the  direction  of  MuUem,  and  a  considerable 
number  lost  their  way  and  were  captured. 

When  Vendome  perceived  the  destruction  of  his  right  wing 
inevitable,  he  retired  with  the  infantry  which  was  still  posted  on 
the  banks  of  the  Norken,  near  MuUem,  and  joined  the  left  wing, 
which  was  in  great  disorder.  A  retreat  now  commenced,  marked 
by  panic,  for,  notwithstanding  all  Vendome's  efforts,  the  Duke  of 
Burgundy  and  many  generals  quite  lost  their  heads.  While  the 
mass  of  fugitives  hurried  in  the  utmost  disorder  toward  Ghent, 
the  marshal  covered  the  retreat  with  twenty-five  squadrons  and 
some  battalions. 

At  dawn  Marlborough  detached  forty  squadrons  from  the  right 
wing,  under  Generals  Bulow  and  Lumley.  and  a  corps  of  infantry, 
commanded  by  Major-general  Meredith,  to  pursue  the  enemy; 
while,  with  characteristic  humanity,  he  directed  his  attention  to 
collect  the  mass  of  wounded  strewed  over  the  battlefield,  in  order 
to  bestow  on  all,  without  distinction  of  nationality,  the  care  and 
relief  which  circumstances  would  permit. 

Various  and  contradictory  accounts  have  been  given  of  the  loss 
of  the  combatants  in  this  memorable  battle.  But  we  may  estimate 
that  of  the  allies  at  about  three  thousand  killed  and  wounded,  and 
that  of  the  enemy  at  no  less  than  four  thousand  killed,  two  thou- 
sand wounded,  and  nine  thousand  prisoners,  including  seven  hun- 
dred officers.  In  a  letter  to  his  duchess,  written  the  day  of  the 
battle,  Marlborough  says:  "The  English  have  suffered  less  than 


RAMILLIES,  OUDENARDE,  AND    MALPLAQUET        413 

anj'  of  the  other  troops,  none  of  our  EngHsh  horse  having  been 
engaged.  The  artillery  on  either  side  also  were  scarcely  engaged.'* 
Marlborough  pushed  the  advantages  of  his  great  victory  at 
Oudenarde.  At  midnight  on  the  13th  a  force  was  detached  to 
capture  the  enemy's  lines  at  Ypres  and  Warneton,  which  was 
effected,  and  Marlborough,  crossing  the  Lys,  established  his  head- 
quarters at  Wernick.  He  now  proposed  to  mask  Lille  and  invade 
France,  but  Prince  Eugene  opposed  the  measure  as  too  bold,  and 
ultimate!}^  it  was  resolved  to  lay  siege  to  Lille,  the  capital  of 
French  Flanders,  and  the  key  of  the  country  between  the  Lys  and 
the  Scheldt.  Marshal  Boufflers  held  the  place  with  nearly  fifteen 
thousand  men,  and  while  Eugene  conducted  the  siege  with  fifty 
battalions,  and  a  siege  train  of  ninety-four  guns  and  sixty  mortars, 
Marlborough  covered  the  operation.  Trenches  were  opened  on  the 
13th  of  August,  and  on  the  30th  Vendome  and  the  Duke  of  Bur- 
gundy, leaving  a  force  of  twenty  thousand  men  to  protect  Ghent 
and  Bruges,  passed  the  Scheldt  and  effected  a  junction  with  Ber- 
wick between  Gramont  and  Lessines,  the  combined  arm}'  of  one 
hundred  and  fortj'  battalions  and  two  hundred  and  fift}'  squadrons 
exceeding  one  hundred  and  ten  thousand  men.  Meantime  the 
siege  of  Lille  was  continued  by  Eugene,  who,  re-enforced  by  five 
thousand  English  troops  from  the  covering  army,  assaulted  the 
place  and  succeeded  in  establishing  a  lodgment.  In  this  desperate 
affair  two  thousand  of  the  besiegers  fell,  and  Eugene  was  wounded. 
Marlborough  now  superintended  in  person  the  siege  operations, 
which  flagged  somewhat.  At  his  request  troops,  under  General 
Erie,  with  an  abundant  supply  of  ammunition  and  stores,  were 
dispatched  from  England  for  the  prosecution  of  the  siege.  Ven- 
dome and  Berwick  dispatched  twenty-two  thousand  men,  under 
General  de  la  Motte,  to  cut  off  these  supplies  in  their  passage  from 
the  coast,  and  Marlborough  detached,  first  twelve  battalions  and 
fifteen  hundred  horse,  and  then  a  re-enforcement  of  twelve  battal- 
ions, under  General  "Webb,  in  order  to  protect  the  march  of  the 
convoy  through  the  wood  of  Wynendale,  and  soon  afterward,  a 
further  force  of  twent5'--six  squadrons  and  twelve  battalions,  under 
Cadogan,  marched  to  Hoghlede,  to  cover  the  passage  of  the  convoy 
between  Tourout  and  the  camp. 


414  GREAT   BATTLES    OF   ALL   NATIONS 

On  the  27th  of  September  the  convoy  departed  from  Ostend, 
and  General  Webb,  at  Tourout,  detached  sixteen  hundred  infantry, 
under  the  command  of  Brigadier  Landsberg,  which  arrived  in  time 
to  prevent  the  occupation  of  Oudenberg  by  the  enemy.  Meanwhile, 
the  cavalry  under  Cadogan  had  reached  Hoghlede,  and  the  enemy 
being  discovered  by  a  reconnoitering  party,  General  Webb  moved 
forward  with  the  infantr}^  in  the  direction  of  Wynendale. 

The  troops  formed  two  lines,  the  left  wing  extending  beyond  a 
coppice,  to  prevent  the  enemy  from  turning  that  flank,  and  the 
right  resting  on  the  wood  and  castle  of  Wynendale.  In  the  wood, 
on  the  right,  was  a  regiment  in  ambuscade,  and  another  regiment 
was  thrown  into  the  coppice,  on  the  left.  Parties  of  grenadiers 
were  posted  among  the  brushwood  on  each  side,  for  the  same  pur- 
pose, with  orders  to  take  the  assailants  in  flank.  The  regiments 
which  escorted  the  convoy  were  formed  in  a  third  line  as  they 
arrived. 

On  the  first  news  that  the  convoy  had  departed.  Count  de  la 
Motte  advanced  to  Oudenberg,  but  the  post  being  already  occu- 
pied he  hastened  to  intercept  it  at  the  defile  of  Wynendale.  Find- 
ing himself  anticipated  by  the  allies,  at  five  o'clock  in  the  afternoon 
he  opened  a  cannonade  which  lasted  two  hours.  In  the  interval  he 
formed  his  troops  in  several  lines,  the  infantry  in  front,  the  cavalry 
in  the  rear ;  and  then  he  advanced,  in  full  confidence,  to  overwhelm 
a  force  which  did  not  amount  to  one-half  of  his  own.  But  when 
they  approached  the  allied  Unes,  they  were  received  by  such  a  fire 
from  the  ambuscade  in  the  wood  that  their  left  wing  gave  way  in 
the  center.  The  fire  of  the  opposite  ambuscade  was  then  opened, 
but,  though  thrown  into  confusion,  they  continued  to  advance,  and 
broke  two  battalions,  when  they  were  repulsed  by  re-enforcements 
drawn  from  the  rear.  The  enemy  made  a  third  attempt,  but  the 
fire  in  front  and  flanks  again  throwing  back  their  wings  on  the 
center,  they  retired,  and,  after  some  distant  and  scattered  volleys, 
relinquished  the  contest. 

Toward  the  close  of  the  action.  General  Cadogan  came  up  with 
some  squadrons  of  horse,  and  proposed  to  charge  the  retreating 
enemy;  but  General  Webb  deemed  it  inadvisable  to  encounter  so 
superior  a  force  of  cavalry,  and  contented  himself  with  securing 


RAMlLLiES,   OUDENARDE,  AND    MALPLAQUET        415 

the  convoy,  which,  during  the  action,  had  passed  in  rear  of  the 
wood.  The  next  day  it  reached  Menin,  where  it  was  welcomed 
with  exultation;  and  on  the  last  day  of  September,  Marlborough 
was  gratified  by  its  passage  through  the  lines  of  his  camp,  now 
estabUshed  between  Pont  a  Marque  and  Menin. 

The  duke  writes  to  Lord  Godolphin :  ' '  Our  loss  in  killed  and 
wounded  is  very  near  one  thousand ;  by  what  the  enemy  left  dead 
on  the  place,  they  must  have  lost  at  least  three  times  as  many  as 
we.  They  had  above  double  our  number.  "Webb  and  Cadogan 
have  behaved  themselves  extremely  well."  Marlborough  and  the 
allied  army  sustained  a  great  loss  by  the  death,  on  the  18th  of 
October,  of  General  Overkirk,  at  the  age  of  sixty-seven.  He  was 
succeeded  in  the  command  of  the  Dutch  forces  by  Coimt  Tilly. 

Vendome,  thwarted  in  his  endeavors  to  raise  the  siege  of  Lille, 
opened  the  sluices,  thus  flooding  the  country  from  Ostend  to  the 
border  of  the  Dike.  But  the  allied  generals  conveyed  their  ammu- 
nition and  suppKes  in  flat-bottomed  boats,  and  a  species  of  amphi- 
bious warfare  now  ensued.  But  all  the  efforts  of  the  French 
marshal  were  fruitless,  and  on  the  23d  of  October,  after  sustaining 
sixty  days'  siege,  Boufflers  surrendered  the  city  and  retired  to  the 
citadel,  where  he  maintained  himself  until  the  9th  of  December. 
The  loss  of  the  garrison  during  this  memorable  siege  amounted  to 
eight  thousand,  and  that  of  the  besiegers,  under  Prince  Eugene,  in 
killed,  wounded  and  sick,  to  no  less  than  fourteen  thousand. 

The  allied  commanders  now  undertook  the  investment  of  Ghent, 
Marlborough  directing  the  siege  operations  and  Eugene  command- 
ing the  covering  army.  On  the  2d  of  January,  1709,  General  de  la 
Motte  surrendered  the  place,  and  the  same  day  Bruges  was  deliv- 
ered up  to  the  allies,  an  example  followed  by  other  towns  in  occu  • 
pation  of  the  French,  and  thus  ended  the  successful  and  glorious 
campaign  of  1708.  During  the  year  Marlborough  displayed  his 
talent  as  a  diplomatist,  which  was  almost  as  great  as  his  military 
quahties,  in  striving  to  negotiate  a  treaty  of  peace,  but  Louis  XIV. 
refused  to  ratify  the  preliminaries,  and  Marlborough  entered  upon 
his  last  campaign,  which,  like  many  of  its  predecessors,  was  con- 
ducted in  what  came  to  be  called  the  "cockpit  of  Europe." 

The  campaign  was  inaugurated  by  an  advance  upon  Tournay 


4i6  GREAT   BATTLES    OF   ALL   NATIONS 

by  the  allied  commanders,  whose  forces  amounted  to  one  hundred 
and  ten  thousand  men,  the  French  army  in  the  field  being  com- 
manded by  Marlborough's  old  antagonist,  Marshal  Villars,  whom 
he  again  outgeneraled.  The  siege  of  Toumay  was  j)ressed  with 
such  energy  b}"  Marlborough  that  General  de  Surville  surrendered 
the  town  on  the  28th  of  July,  after  only  four  weeks'  investment, 
and  the  citadel  on  the  3d  of  September.  The  losses  on  both  sides 
had  been  very  heavy,  owing  to  the  mining  and  countermining,  in 
which  hundreds  were  blown  into  the  air  in  what  a  French  historian 
calls  "this  infernal  labyrinth."  At  this  time  Marshal  Villars  was 
intrenched  on  the  Scheldt,  but  this  skillful  commander  soon  had 
the  same  experience  as  his  brother  French  marshals — that  of  being 
outmaneuvered  by  his  EngHsh  antagonist.  The  Prince  of  Hesse, 
detached  by  Marlborough,  by  forced  marches  succeeded  in  invest- 
ing Mons  on  the  side  of  France. 

At  a  council  of  war  held  on  the  8th  of  September,  the  allied 
commanders  determined  to  secure  the  plain  of  Mons,  and  put  in 
motion  the  whole  army  of  one  hundred  and  twenty-nine  battalions 
of  infantry,  two  hundred  and  fifty-two  squadrons  of  horse,  num- 
bering ninety-three  thousand  men,  with  one  hundred  and  one 
guns  and  four  mortars.  The  French  army,  under  Marshals  Vil- 
lars and  Boufflers,  with  the  best  officers  France  could  boast,  had 
about  the  same  number  of  combatants.  The  French  generals  fail- 
ing to  attack,  Marlborough  and  Eugene  resolved  to  take  the  initia- 
tive as  soon  as  the  eighteen  battalions  of  the  latter  and  nineteen 
from  Tournay  had  joined. 

As  the  morning  of  the  eventful  11th  of  September  began  to 
dawn,  a  mist  overspread  the  woods  and  concealed  the  armies  from 
each  other. 

Divine  service  was  performed  in  the  allied  camp  at  3  a.m.,  and 
silence  and  order  reigned  throughout  all  ranks  as  they  steadily 
marched  from  the  bivouac  to  their  posts.  The  enem}',  finding  that 
the  alUes  were  making  their  dispositions  for  the  attack,  discon- 
tinued working  at  the  intrenchments,  and  stood  to  their  arms. 
Both  sides  gave  unbounded  proofs  of  confidence  in  their  leaders, 
and  in  the  result  of  this  eagerly-expected  engagement.  The  French 
soldiers  cheered  Marshal  Villars  as  he  rode  along  their  ranks,  and 


RAMILLIES,  OUDENARDE,  AND    MALPLAQUET        417 

many  of  tiiem,  though  ill-supplied  with  provisions  for  several  days, 
even  threw  away  their  rations  of  bread  in  the  eagerness  to  begin 
the  engagement.  At  seven  Villars  mounted  his  horse,  and  re- 
quested Mcirshal  Boufflers  to  assume  the  command  of  the  right 
wing,  while  he  himself  superintended  the  movements  of  the  left. 

The  allied  army  was  in  readiness  to  advance  before  dawn,  and 
were  waiting  not  less  eager  for  the  fray  than  their  antagonists,  as 
they  had  for  their  leaders  the  same  two  invincible  generals  who 
had  triumphed  in  eight  campaigns.  The  commanders-in-chief, 
with  the  prince  royal  of  Prussia,  and  the  Dutch  deputy,  Gos- 
linga,  surveyed  the  execution  of  the  preparatory  dispositions  in 
every  part  of  the  field. 

At  half-past  seven  the  rajs  of  the  sun  dissipated  the  fog,  and 
as  soon  as  the  artillery  could  aim  with  precision,  the  fire  opened 
on  both  sides  with  great  animation  and  effect,  although  the  two 
armies  were  almost  concealed  from  each  other  by  the  intrench- 
ments  and  inequalities  of  the  ground.  Soon  after  the  opening  of 
the  cannonade,  Villars  and  Boufflers  repaired  to  their  respective 
posts,  and  the  two  confederate  generals  also  separated — Eugene 
to  direct  the  movements  of  the  right,  and  Marlborough  those  of 
the  center  and  left. 

The  attack  commenced,  on  the  side  of  the  allies,  against  the 
right  and  center  of  the  French,  in  two  columns;  the  first  under 
the  Prince  of  Orange,  and  the  other  under  the  Prussian  Count 
Lottum.  Suddenly  the  Dutch  column  halted,  according  to  orders, 
and  drew  up  in  several  lines  beyond  the  reach  of  grape,  while  that 
of  Lottum  moved  forward,  regardless  of  the  fire,  to  the  rear  of  the 
principal  allied  battery,  and,  wheeling  to  the  right,  formed  in  three 
lines.  As  these  columns  took  their  stations,  General  Schulemberg 
advanced  at  the  head  of  forty  battalions,  ranged  in  three  lines. 

After  a  short  pause  in  the  cannonade,  the  signal  of  onset  was 
given  at  nine,  by  a  general  volley  from  a  battery  in  the  alhed  cen- 
ter. Schulemberg  instantly  advanced  along  the  edge  of  the  wood 
of  Sart,  direct  upon  the  head  of  the  enemy's  left  wing,  while  Lot- 
tum marched  round  the  battery,  to  attack  the  other  side ;  and,  as 
he  cleared  the  ground.  Lord  Orkney  deployed  his  fifteen  battalions 
to  cover  his  left,  and  face  the  hostile  center.  Three  battalions, 
N—VOL.  1. 


4l8  GREAT    BATTLES    OF    ALL   NATIONS 

drawn  from  the  blockading  corps  before  Mons,  likewise  pressed 
forward,  under  the  orders  of  Gauvain,  and  entered  the  wood  of 
Sart  unperceived.  Schulemberg's  column  approached  within  pistol- 
shot  of  the  enemy,  and  then  received  a  volley  which  forced  several 
battalions  to  recoil  more  than  two  hundred  yards. 

Marlborough,  meantime,  advancing  toward  the  center,  led  on 
in  person  the  troops  of  Count  Lottum.  At  some  distance  thej^ 
were  greeted  by  volleys  of  musketry  from  the  brigade  du  Roi ; 
■without  wavering  they  passed  some  inclosures,  descended  the  hol- 
low bank  of  the  rivulet,  and  waded  through  the  swamp,  under  a 
galling  fire.  Reaching  the  foot  of  the  intrenchment,  though  dis- 
ordered bj^  the  difficulty  of  the  approach  and-  the  loss  they  had 
sustained,  they  made  the  most  furious  effort  to  ascend  the  breast- 
work, but  were  repulsed  by  the  French  troops,  now  encouraged  by 
the  presence  of  Villars  himself. 

Meanwhile  General  Withers,  with  the  battalions  drawn  from 
Toumay,  advanced  in  silence  through  the  woods,  in  the  direction 
of  La  Folie,  but  without  a  single  shot  being  fired  on  that  side. 
Both  the  first  lines  of  attack  on  the  right  having  suffered  severely, 
Eugene  and  Schulemberg  filled  up  the  intervals,  and  extended  the 
flanks  with  part  of  the  second;  they  then  advanced  again,  and 
dislodged  the  brigades  of  La  Reine  and  Charost,  but  could  not 
force  those  of  Picardie  and  La  Marine,  notwithstanding  the  great 
exertions  of  the  Danes,  Saxons,  and  Hessians. 

Count  Lottum  now  returned  to  the  attack,  while  Marlborough 
placed  himself  at  the  head  of  d'Auvergne's  cavalry  to  sustain  him. 
At  this  moment  the  Duke  of  Argyle  ordered  a  British  brigade  of 
the  second  line  to  extend  the  left,  and  the  whole  renewed  the 
charge.  As  the  attacks  embraced  a  wider  front,  this  fresh  brigade 
came  opposite  an  opening  in  the  intrenchment ;  but  the  access  was 
through  a  marshy  spot,  almost  impassable.  "While  they  were  en- 
tangled in  the  swamp.  General  Chemerault,  with  twelve  battalions 
drawn  from  the  second  line  of  the  French  left  center,  passed  the 
intrenchments,  and  prepared  to  charge  their  left  flank.  But  Vil- 
lars, who  was  on  the  border  of  the  wood,  remarking  Marlborough, 
with  his  staff,  at  the  head  of  d'Auvergne's  cavalry,  galloped  for- 
ward, and  stopped  them  at  the  moment  when  their  further  advance 


RAMILLIES,  OUDENARDE,  AND    MALPLAQUET        419 

would  have  been  fatal.  Free  on  the  flank,  the  left  of  Count  Lot- 
turn  then  penetrated  the  intrenchment,  turned  the  right  of  the 
brigade  du  Roi,  and  forced  the  French  to  gradually  fall  back  in 
the  wood. 

The  brigades  of  Champagne  and  Picardie,  pressed  by  the  double 
assault  of  Schulemberg  on  one  side  and  of  Lottum  on  the  other, 
found  a  momentary  asylum  behind  an  abatis;  and  the  Marine 
brigade,  after  a  vigorous  stand,  was  compelled  to  follow  their 
example.  The  rest  retired  in  disorder  thi-ough  the  wood,  which 
was  so  close  that  the  lines  were  broken  into  parties,  and  every 
tree  was  disputed. 

Meantime,  the  appointed  half -hour  of  the  first  onset  had  elapsed, 
when  the  Prince  of  Orange,  impatient  of  delay,  resolved  to  attack, 
although  not  supported  by  "Withers'  corps,  and  without  waiting 
the  consent  of  his  nominal  superior.  Marshal  Tilly. 

In  obedience .  to  the  particular  disposition  issued  the  preceding 
evening,  the  left  of  the  whole  front  was  led  by  Major-general 
Hamilton  and  Brigadier  Douglas,  with  four  battalions,  among 
whom  was  the  Scottish  brigade,  in  four  lines,  with  orders  to  enter 
the  wood  and  attack  the  grenadiers  who  covered  the  right  flank 
of  the  enemy.  Nine  battalions,  commanded  by  Lieutenant-gen- 
erals Saar  and  Oxenstiern  were  to  advance  against  the  salient 
angle  of  the  intrenchment  next  the  wood;  and  to  the  right  of 
these,  six  battalions,  in  three  Hues,  led  by  Lieutenant-generals 
Dohna  and  Heyden,  were  to  carry  the  battery  on  the  road  to 
Malplaquet.  Generals  Welderen  and  Rank,  with  four  battalions, 
in  two  Hues,  received  directions  to  skirt  the  hedges  of  Bleron  and 
force  the  intrenchment  to  the  right  of  the  battery.  Beyond  these, 
in  the  inclosures  of  Bleron,  seven  battalions,  under  Major-generals 
Pallant  and  Ammama,  were  ordered  to  advance  in  three  lines,  and 
attack  the  apex  of  the  projecting  intrenchments,  defended  by  two 
brigades.  The  whole  was  supported  by  the  hereditary  Prince  of 
Hesse-Cassel,  with  twenty-one  squadrons,  in  two  lines,  and  pre- 
ceded by  some  guns. 

On  the  word  to  march  all  were  instantly  in  motion,  led  on  by 
the  eager  young  Prince  of  Orange  at  the  head  of  the  first  nine  bat- 
talions, under  a  tremendous  shower  of  grape  and  musketry.     He 


420  GREAl    BATTLES    OF    ALL    NATIONS 

had  moved  only  a  few  paces  when  the  brave  Oxenstiern  was  killed 
by  his  side ;  and  several  aides-de-camp  and  attendants  successively 
dropped  as  he  advanced.  His  own  horse  being  killed,  he  advanced 
on  foot,  and  as  he  passed  the  opening  of  the  great  flanking  batter}', 
whole  ranks  were  swept  away ;  yet  he  reached  the  intrenchment, 
and,  waving  his  hat,  in  an  instant  the  breastwork  was  forced  at 
the  point  of  the  bayonet  by  the  Dutch  guards  and  Highlanders. 
But  before  they  could  deploy,  they  were  driven  back  from  the  post 
by  an  impetuous  charge  from  the  troops  of  the  French  left,  who 
had  been  ralhed  by  Marshal  Boufflers.  At  this  moment  the  corps 
under  Dohna  moved  gallantlj^  against  the  battery  on  the  road, 
penetrated  into  the  embrasures,  and  took  some  colors;  but  ere 
they  reached  the  front  of  the  breastwork  were  mowed  down  by 
the  battery  on  their  flank.  A  dreadful  carnage  took  place  among 
the  troops  in  this  concerted  attack.  Spaar  lay  dead  upon  the  field ; 
Hamilton  was  carried  off  wounded;  and  the  hues,  beginning  to 
waver,  recoiled  a  few  paces.  Deriving  fresh  spirit  from  this  re- 
pulse, the  heroic  Prince  of  Orange  rallied  the  nearest  troops  and 
planted  the  colors  on  the  bank.  Foremost  among  the  assailants 
at  his  side  was  the  heir  of  Athol,  the  gallant  Marquis  of  Tullibar- 
dine,  who,  with  his  faithful  Highlanders,  had  sought  honor  mider 
a  foreign  flag.  The  marquis  was  slain,  and  Lieutenant-general 
Week  shared  his  glorious  fate,  and  the  Swiss  brigadier  Mey  was 
severely  wounded.  Again  the  onset  was  renewed,  but  it  was  no 
longer  possible  to  force  the  enemy,  for  their  second  line  had  closed 
up,  and  the  whole  breastwork  bristled  with  bayonets  and  blazed 
with  fire.  The  brigade  of  Navarre,  which  had  been  sent  to  re- 
enforce  the  center,  was  recalled,  and  the  French  soldiers,  disre- 
garding the  control  of  their  officers,  quitted  the  intrenchment  and 
made  a  furious  charge.  The  disordered  ranks  of  the  Dutch  bat- 
talions were  driven  back  over  heaps  of  slain  companions;  they  lost 
several  columns,  and  their  advanced  battery  fell  into  the  hands  of 
the  French. 

They  soon  rallied,  and  were  supported  by  the  Prince  of  Hesse, 
at  the  head  of  his  squadrons.  In  these  attacks  nearly  two  thou- 
sand men  were  killed,  and  the  number  of  wounded  was  still  greater. 
The  seven  battalions,  under  Lieutenant-general  Pallant,  also  sought 


RAMILLIHS,   OUDENARDE,  AND    MALPLAQUET         421 

to  storm  the  projecting  intrenchment  near  the  farm  of  Bleroii,  but, 
after  temporary  success,  were  compelled  to  relinquish  a  breastwork 
they  had  carried. 

During  this  unequal  conflict,  the  Deputy  Goshnga,  witnessing 
the  danger  of  his  gallant  countrymen,  galloped  toward  the  right 
to  demand  assistance.  Meeting  Lieutenant-general  Rantzau,  who, 
with  four  battalions  of  Hanoverians,  was  posted  on  the  edge  of  the 
rivulet  near  the  wood  of  Tiry,  he  obtained  from  him  a  re-enforce- 
ment of  two  battalions.  AVhile  the  deputy,  not  satisfied  with  this 
relief,  hastened  across  the  field  in  search  of  Marlborough,  the  at- 
tack on  the  left  was  renewed,  and  the  intrenchment  carried ;  but 
again  the  assailants  were  repulsed  with  prodigious  loss.  All  the 
Hanoverian  officers,  except  three,  were  killed  or  wounded,  and 
the  French  lost,  among  other  officers,  their  veteran  brigadier, 
Steckenberg. 

In  this  anxious  crisis,  Goslinga  met  Marlborough,  who,  leaving 
Lottum  to  continue  his  successful  attack,  was  himself  hastening  to 
remedy  the  disorder  on  the  left.  They  rode  together  to  join  the 
Prince  of  Orange,  and  were  joined  by  Eugene.  While  giving  the 
necessary  orders  to  the  left  wing,  a  British  officer  arrived  from 
the  right  to  inform  them  that  the  enemy  Avere  attacking  in  turn 
with  great  fury  and  evident  advantage. 

During  this  time  Villars  had  ineffectually  summoned  re-enforce- 
ments from  his  right,  for  Boufflers  was  too  much  weakened,  even 
by  his  successful  resistance,  to  detach  a  part  of  his  infantry.  Thus 
reduced  to  the  necessity  of  drawing  troops  from  his  own  center,  he 
reluctantly  called  the  Irish  brigade  and  that  of  Bretagne  to  his 
assistance,  and  was  soon  afterward  joined  by  the  brigade  of  La 
Sarre.  With  the  aid  of  these  and  other  re-enforcements,  a  furious 
charge  was  made  into  the  wood  of  Taisniere  upon  the  British  and 
Prussians,  who  recoiled  a  considerable  way  before  the  impetuous 
onset  of  the  Irish ;  but  the  nature  of  the  spot  upon  which  they 
fought  soon  divided  their  ranks  and  retarded  their  progress. 

At  this  moment  the  allied  troops  were  cheered  by  the  return  of 
Marlborough,  who,  on  the  intelligence  of  their  critical  situation, 
again  hastened  to  the  right  of  his  center,  to  co-operate  with  the 
attack  from  the  army  of  Eugene,     Meanwhile,  Schulemberg,  hav- 


422  GREAT   BATTLES    OF    ALL    NATIONS 

ing  forced  his  way  round  the  marsh,  pushed  the  eneni}^  gradually 
before  him  into  the  wood,  where  the  fighting  was  obscured  by  a 
thick  foliage  and  dense  smoke. 

The  troops  of  the  right  were  also  animated  by  the  return  of 
Eugene,  who,  as  he  was  rallying  his  men,  was  struck  by  a  musket 
ball  behind  the  ear;  but  the  wound  was  not  serious,  and  he  refused 
to  quit  the  field.  His  example  roused  the  German  battalions,  and 
they  recovered  the  lost  ground,  pressing  forward  in  great  numbers; 
and  his  efforts  were  seconded  by  General  Withers,  from  his  station 
at  La  Folie.  Posting  four  battalions  on  their  left  flank,  with  the 
remaining  fifteen,  Withers  passed  the  little  rivulet,  crossed  a  small 
coppice,  and  took  post  in  the  hedges  of  La  Folie. 

Notwithstanding  the  repulse  of  six  Danish  and  Saxon  squadrons 
of  horse,  belonging  to  this  corps,  it  was  the  progress  of  General 
Withers  which  hastened  the  retreat  of  the  enemy's  left  out  of  the 
wood  at  Taisniere,  and  alarmed  Villars.  In  the  carnage,  Cheme- 
rault  and  Pallavicini  fell ;  and  Villars  made  a  fresh  disposition, 
and  also  formed  a  corps  of  twelve  battalions,  in  two  lines,  at  fifty 
paces  from  the  wood.  At  this  moment  Eugene  advanced  at  the 
head  of  five  German  regiments,  and  opened  a  destructive  fire. 
They  were  charged  by  the  French  with  bayonets,  under  the  imme- 
diate direction  of  Villars ;  but,  in  the  heat  of  the  combat,  his  horse 
was  shot,  and  a  second  musket  ball  struck  him  above  the  knee, 
compelling  him  to  quit  the  field  in  a  senseless  condition.  Notwith- 
standing his  loss,  the  allied  battalions  were  driven  back  to  the  edge 
of  the  wood  of  Taisniere,  from  whence  they  did  not  again  attempt 
to  advance. 

Thus,  after  an  obstinate  conflict  of  four  hours,  the  confederate 
commanders  only  obtained  possession  of  the  intrenchments  and 
wood  on  the  enemy's  left,  but  they  were  now  at  Hberty  to  execute 
the  ulterior  object  of  their  plans  by  attacking  the  hostile  center. 

As  soon  as  the  enemy  began  to  remove  their  cannon  from  the 
intrenchments,  Marlborough,  whose  right  formed  the  allied  center, 
ordered  Lord  Orkney  to  make  a  decisive  effort  upon  the  works  in 
the  center.  This  gallant  officer,  assisted  by  Rantzau,  Vink,  and 
other  generals,  had  gradually  advanced  in  proportion  as  Lottum 
gained  ground;  and  behind  hira  was  the  Prince  d'Auvorgne,  with 


RAMILLiES,  OUDENARDE,  AND    MALPLAQUET        423 

thirty  squadrons  of  Dutch  cavahy  in  two  lines.  In  tlieir  rear  was 
the  British  cavalry,  under  Lieutenant-general  Wood,  and  the  Prus- 
sian and  Hanoverian  horse,  commanded  by  General  Bulau;  and 
the  whole  imperial  cavalry,  under  the  Duke  of  "Wurtemberg  and 
Count  de  Vehlen,  formed  in  columns,  stood  ready  to  move  at  the 
first  order.  Lord  Orkney,  advancing  in  one  line,  at  a  single  onset 
took  possession  of  all  the  enemy's  works,  overpowering  the  Bava- 
rian and  Cologne  guards,  who  were  left  almost  unsupported,  in 
consequence  of  the  draughts  from  the  center  to  re-enforce  the  left. 
The  heavy  battery  of  the  British  center  had  meanwhile  been 
brought  forward  and  turned  against  these  troops,  and  now  the 
guns  of  the  central  batter}^,  which  had  been  directed  upon  the 
works,  moved  rapidly  to  the  right  and  left,  and  opened  a  tremen- 
dous cannonade  across  the  rear,  upon  the  lines  of  hostile  cavalry 
drawn  up  along  the  plain.  The  French  horse  falling  back,  Rant- 
zau,  with  his  two  battaUons,  turned  the  left  flank  of  the  French 
and  Swiss  guards  and  dislodged  them.  At  the  same  moment,  the 
Prince  of  Orange,  undaunted  by  his  former  repulse,  renewed  the 
attack,  and  the  French  brigades  were  driven  out  of  the  intrench- 
ments. 

The  crisis  of  this  sanguinary  battle  had  now  arrived.  The 
Prince  d'Auvergne,  while  forming  his  horsemen  on  the  further 
side  of  the  French  works,  was  charged  by  the  hostile  cavalry,  but 
succeeded  in  repulsing  them.  The  wave  of  attack  was  quickly 
followed  by  another.  Marshal  Bouflflers,  on  hearing  that  the  allies 
had  broken  through  the  center,  ordered  the  household  horse  to  fol- 
low, and  flew  to  the  spot,  where  he  found  the  gens-d'armes  ready 
to  charge.  After  a  short  and  cheering  address,  he  placed  himself 
at  their  head,  and  charged  his  antagonists,  who  were  extending 
their  lines  through  the  openings  of  the  captured  works.  Notwith- 
standing all  the  efforts  of  the  gallant  d'Auvergne,  the  alhed  squad- 
rons were  driven  back  to  the  intrenchments ;  but  Lord  Orkney, 
who  had  taken  the  precaution  to  post  his  infantry  upon  the  para- 
pets, poured  in  a  most  destructive  fire,  which  repulsed  the  gens- 
d'armes  in  their  turn.  Thrice  these  charges  were  repeated,  and 
thrice  the  impetuous  assailants  were  repulsed  by  the  combined  fire 
of  the  musketry  and  cross-batteries  on  the  flanks. 


424  GREAT    BATTLES    OF   ALL    NATIONS 

In  the  midst  of  this  arduous  struggle,  Marlborough  came  up 
and  led  forward  a  second  line  of  British  and  PriLssian  cavalry, 
under  the  command  of  Bulau  and  Wood.  They  fell  on  the  dis- 
comfited squadrons,  who  were  attempting  to  ^^^thd^aw,  and  would 
have  swept  them  from  the  field  but  for  the  advance  of  a  formidable 
body  of  tsvo  thousand  men,  consisting  of  the  choicest  troops  of  the 
royal  household. 

These  brave  horsemen  had  hastened  from  the  right  to  share 
the  dangers  of  the  center,  and  were  also  led  to  the  charge  b}' 
Marshal  Boufflers.  Their  onset  was  irresistible;  they  broke 
through  the  first  and  second  lines,  and  threw  the  third  into 
confusion.  But  the  force  of  the  alhes  on  this  point  was  now 
opportunely  augmented,  the  whole- of  Eugene's  cavalry  having 
followed,  at  a  full  gallop,  in  rear  of  Marlborough's  right  wing. 
The  presence  of  this  illustrious  hero  animated  the  troops;  and,  by 
the  judicious  dispositions  of  the  two  commanders,  the  assailants 
were  outflanked,  and,  being  galled  by  a  cross  fire  from  the  in- 
fantry, retreated  to  the  plain.  Their  spirit,  however,  was  un- 
broken; again  they  rallied,  and  renewed  the  charge  several  times, 
though  vnthout  making  any  considerable  impression.  The  aUied 
cavalry,  on  their  part,  moved  forward  wdth  redoubled  ardor,  and, 
being  superior  in  numbers,  finally  drove  back  this  intrepid  bodj- 
of  horsemen.  Observing  Lord  Orkney's  advance,  and  Rantzau's 
maneuver  upon  the  flanks  of  the  French  guards,  the  Prince  of 
Hesse  pushed  forward  in  column,  passed  the  works,  and,  wheeling 
to  the  left,  took  the  right  of  the  hostile  infantry  in  flank.  This 
daring  maneuver  had  the  desired  effect;  the  enemy  crowded  to 
their  right,  and  were  again  attacked  by  the  Prince  of  Orange,  who 
had  reoccupied  the  intrenchments  with  little  resistance. 

Boufflers  now  beheld  his  center  pierced,  his  right  dislodged,  the 
communication  with  his  left  cut  off,  and  the  ablest  officers  under 
his  command  killed  or  wounded.  Finally,  he  learned  that  Legal, 
who  commanded  the  left,  was  in  full  retreat  with  his  cavalry  and 
about  fifty  battahons,  and  therefore  reluctantly  ordered  a  general 
retreat  in  the  direction  of  Bavai.  D'Artagnan  marched  off  in 
close  column  through  the  woods;  Boufflers  crossed  the  Hon  at 
Taisniere  and  the  neighboring  hamlet;  and  Luxembourg  covered 


RAMILLIES,  OUDENARDE,  AND   MALPLAQUET        425 

the  rear  with  the  reserve.  Beyond  the  woods,  on  the  plain  in  front 
of  Bavai,  the  infantry  and  cavalry  rejoined,  and  after  halting  to 
collect  the  stragglers,  and  break  down  the  bridges,  passed  the 
Honeau  in  the  vicinity  of  that  town.  Their  left  withdrew  toward 
Qnevrain,  and  effected  their  retreat  with  little  loss,  as  the  allies 
were  too  much  exhausted  and  reduced  to  pursue  them  in  force, 
and  gradually  reassembled  at  a  camp  between  Quesnoy  and  Valen- 
ciennes. This  has  been  justly  considered  a  masterly  retreat,  and 
was  applauded  by  Eugene  and  Marlborough.  The  allied  forces 
halted  near  the  field  of  battle,  on  the  plain  stretching  from  Mal- 
plaquet  beyond  Taisniere.  Not  more  than  five  hundred  prisoners 
were  taken  by  the  allies,  exclusive  of  those  who  were  left  wounded 
on  the  field,  amounting  to  about  three  thousand.  Few  cannon  or 
colors  were  captured,  and  the  victory  was  only  manifested  by  the 
retreat  of  the  French,  and  the  subsequent  investment  of  Mons. 

The  respective  losses  in  this  desperate  engagement  have  been, 
as  usual,  variously  stated,  but,  without  doubt,  Malplaquet  was  a 
Pyrrhic  victory,  and  a  few  more  such  and  the  EngUsh  army  would 
have  disappeared.  The  ofScial  accounts  of  the  allies  return  their 
loss  in  infantry  alone  as  five  thousand  five  hundred  and  forty-four 
killed,  and  twelve  thousand  seven  hundred  and  six  wounded  and 
missing,  making  a  total  of  eighteen  thousand  two  hundred  and 
fifty ;  and  among  these,  two  hundred  and  eighty-six  officers  killed, 
and  seven  hundred  and  sixty-two  wounded.  Including  the  loss 
of  the  cavalry,  the  total  casualties  probably  did  not  fall  short  of 
twenty  thousand  men.  Villars,  while  placing  the  English  losses  at 
thirty-five  thousand,  sought  to  minimize  that  of  the  French  army. 
He  puts  it,  in  a  letter  to  Louis  XIV.,  at  six  thousand  men,  and 
the  highest  estimate  by  other  French  writers  gives  only  eight  thou- 
sand one  hundred  and  thirty-seven  killed,  wounded,  and  prisoners; 
though  the  biographers  of  the  Duke  of  Marlborough  calculate  their 
loss  at  not  less  than  fourteen  thousand  men,  exclusive  of  deserters. 
Marlborough  allows  that  the  French  fought  with  great  spirit,  and 
made  a  most  obstinate  resistance,  though  Villars  rather  exagger- 
ates when  he  said  that  "the  enemy  would  have  been  annihilated 
by  such  another  victory." 


CHAPTER   XVIII 
THE   BATTLE  OF   PULTOWA 

SWEDES  AND  TARTARS— PETER  THE  GREAT   AND   CHARLES  XII.— 
GREAT  STRUGGLE  FOR  THE   SUPREMACY  OF  THE  NORTH 

A.  D.  1709 

THE  battle  of  Pultowa,  in  which  Peter  the  Great  vanquished 
the  king  of  Sweden,  is  doubly  important.  It  is  important 
by  reason  of  what  it  established.  It  is  important  by  rea- 
son of  what  it  overthrew.  Through  it  Russia  became  a  first-class 
power,  and  through  it  Sweden  was  reduced  to  an  inferior  rank. 

With  a  population  exceeding  sixty  millions,  all  implicitly  obey- 
ing the  impulse  of  a  single  ruling  mind ;  with  a  temtorial  area  of 
six  millions  and  a  half  of  square  miles ;  with  a  standing  army  eight 
hundred  thousand  strong;  with  powerful  fleets  on  the  Baltic  and 
Black  Seas;  with  a  skillful  host  of  diplomatic  agents  planted  in 
every  court  and  among  every  tribe ;  with  the  confidence  which  un- 
expected success  creates  and  the  sagacity  which  long  experience 
fosters,  Russia  now  grasps,  with  an  armed  right  hand,  the  tangled 
thread  of  European  politics,  and  issues  her  mandates  as  the  arbi- 
tress  of  the  movements  of  the  age.  Yet  a  centur}^  and  a  half  hzve 
hardly  elapsed  since  she  was  first  recognized  as  a  member  of  the 
drama  of  modern  European  history — previous  to  the  battle  of  Pul- 
towa, Russia  played  no  part. 

But,  though  Russia  remained  thus  long  unheeded  among  her 
snows,  there  was  a  Northern  power,  the  influence  of  which  was 
acknowledged  in  the  principal  European  quarrels,  and  whose  good- 
will was  sedulously  courted  by  many  of  the  boldest  chiefs  and 
ablest  counselors  of  the  leading  states.  This  was  Sweden;  Swe- 
den, on  whose  ruins  Russia  has  risen,  but  whose  ascendency  over 
(426) 


THE    BATTLE    OF    PULTOWA  427 

her  semi-barbarous  neighbor  was  complete  until  this  battle  was 
fought. 

But  the  Sweden  of  the  past  is  not  the  Sweden  of  to-day.  Fin- 
land, Ingria,  Livonia,  Esthonia,  Carelia,  together  with  other  dis- 
tricts east  of  the  Baltic,  were  then  Swedish  provinces.  In  addition, 
the  possession  of  Pomerania,  Rugen,  and  Bremen  made  her  doubly 
important.  From  the  proud  position  which  she  then  held  the  de- 
feat of  Charles  XII.  hurled  her  forever. 

The  triumph  of  Russia  in  this  battle  is  therefore  important, 
and  it  is  the  more  deeply  interesting  because  it  was  not  merely  a 
struggle  between  two  states  but  between  two  races. 

It  is  a  singular  fact  that  Russia  owes  her  very  name  to  a  band 
of  Swedish  invaders  who  conquered  her  a  thousand  years  ago. 
They  were  soon  absorbed  in  the  Slavonic  population,  and  every 
trace  of  the  Swedish  character  had  disappeared  in  Russia  for  many 
centuries  before  her  invasion  by  Charles  XII.  She  was  long  the 
victim  and  the  slave  of  the  Tartars;  and  for  many  considerable 
periods  of  yeai^s  the  Poles  held  her  in  subjugation.  Indeed,  if  we 
except  the  expeditions  of  some  of  the  early  Russian  chiefs  against 
Byzantium,  and  the  reign  of  Ivan  Vasilovitch,  the  history  of  Rus- 
sia before  the  time  of  Peter  the  Great  is  one  long  tale  of  suffering 
and  degradation. 

But,  whatever  may  have  been  the  amount  of  national  injuries 
that  she  sustained  from  Swede,  from  Tartar,  or  from  Pole  in  the 
ages  of  her  weakness,  she  has  certainly  retaUated  tenfold  during 
the  century  and  a  half  of  her  strength.  Her  rapid  transition  at 
the  commencement  of  that  period  from  being  the  pre}"  of  every 
conqueror  to  being  the  conqueror  of  all  with  whom  she  comes  into 
contact,  to  being  the  oppressor  instead  of  the  oppressed,  is  almost 
without  a  parallel  in  the  history  of  nations.  It  was  the  work  of 
a  single  ruler;  who,  himself  without  education,  promoted  science 
and  literature  among  barbaric  millions;  who  gave  them  fleets, 
commerce,  arts,  and  arms;  who,  at  Pultowa,  taught  them  to  face 
and  beat  the  previously  invincible  Swedes;  and  who  made  stub- 
bom  valor  and  implicit  subordination  from  that  time  forth  the 
distinguishing  characteristics  of  the  Russian  soldiery,  which  had 
before  his  time  been  a  mere  disorderly  and  irresolute  rabble. 


428  GREAT   BATTLES   OF   ALL   NATIONS 

The  career  of  Philip  of  Macedon  resembles  most  nearly  that  of 
the  gi'eat  Muscovite  Czar:  but  there  is  this  important  difference, 
that  Philip  had,  while  young,  received  in  Southern  Greece  the  best 
education  in  all  matters  of  peace  and  war  that  the  ablest  philoso- 
phers and  generals  of  the  age  could  bestow.  Peter  was  brought 
up  among  barbarians  and  in  barbaric  ignorance.  He  strove  to 
i-emedy  this,  when  a  grown  man,  by  leaving  all  the  temptations 
to  idleness  and  sensuality  which  his  court  offered,  and  by  seeking 
instruction  abroad.  He  labored  with  his  own  hands  as  a  common 
artisan  in  Holland  and  England,  that  he  might  return  and  teach 
his  subjects  how  ships,  commerce,  and  civilization  could  be  ac- 
quired. There  is  a  degree  of  heroism  here  superior  to  anything 
that  we  know  of  in  the  Macedonian  king.  But  Philip's  consolida- 
tion of  the  long-disunited  Macedonian  empire ;  his  raising  a  people, 
which  he  found  the  scora  of  their  civilized  southern  neighbors,  to 
be  their  dread;  his  organization  of  a  brave  and  well-disciplined 
army  instead  of  a  disorderly  militia ;  his  creation  of  a  maritime 
force,  and  his  systematic  skill  in  acquiring  and  improving  seaports 
and  arsenals;  his  patient  tenacity  of  purpose  under  reverses;  his 
personal  braverj',  and  even  his  proneness  to  coarse  amusements 
and  pleasures,  all  mark  him  out  as  the  prototype  of  the  imperial 
founder  of  the  Russian  power.  In  justice,  however,  to  the  ancient 
hero,  it  ought  to  be  added  that  we  find  in  the  history  of  Philip  no 
exampks  of  that  savage  cruelty  which  deforms  so  grievously  the 
character  of  Peter  the  Great. 

In  considering  the  effects  of  the  overthrow  which  the  Swedish 
arms  sustained  at  Pultowa,  and  in  speculating  on  the  probable 
consequences  that  would  have  followed  if  the  invaders  had  been 
successful,  we  must  not  only  bear  in  mind  the  wretched  state  in 
which  Peter  found  Russia  at  his  accession,  compared  with  her 
present  grandeur,  but  we  must  also  keep  in  ^^ew  the  fact  that,  at 
the  time  when  Pultowa  was  fought,  his  reforms  were  yet  incom- 
Y)lete  and  his  new  institutions  immature.  He  had  broken  up  the 
Old  Russia ;  and  the  New  Russia,  which  he  ultimately  created,  was 
still  in  embryo.  Had  he  been  crushed  at  Pultowa,  his  immense 
labors  would  have  been  buried  with  him,  and  (to  use  the  words  of 
Voltaire)  *'thc  most  extensive  empire  in  the  world  would  have  re- 


THE   BATTLE   OF   PULTOWA  429 

lapsed  into  the  chaos  from  which  it  had  been  so  lately  taken."  It 
is  this  fact  that  makes  the  repulse  of  Charles  XII.  the  critical  point 
in  the  fortunes  of  Russia.  The  danger  which  she  incurred  a  cent- 
ury afterward  from  her  invasion  by  Napoleon  was  in  reality  far 
less  than  her  peril  when  Charles  attacked  her,  though  the  French 
emperor,  as  a  military  genius,  was  infinitely  superior  to  the  Swedish 
king,  and  led  a  host  against  her  compared  with  which  the  armies 
of  Charles  seem  almost  insignificant.  But,  as  Fouche  well  warned 
his  imperial  master,  when  he  vainly  endeavored  to  dissuade  him 
from  his  disastrous  expedition  against  the  empire  of  the  czars,  the 
difference  between  the  Russia  of  1812  and  the  Russia  of  1709  was 
greater  than  the  disparity  between  the  power  of  Charles  and  the 
might  of  Napoleon.  "If  that  heroic  king,"  said  Fouche,  "had 
not,  like  your  imperial  majesty,  half  Europe  in  arms  to  back  him, 
neither  had  his  opponent,  the  Czar  Peter,  four  hundred  thousand 
soldiers  and  fifty  thousand  Cossacks."  The  historians  who  de- 
scribe the  state  of  the  Muscovite  empire  when  revolutionary  and 
imperial  France  encountered  it,  narrate  with  truth  and  justice 
how,  "at  the  epoch  of  the  French  Revolution,  this  immense  empire, 
comprehending  nearly  half  of  Europe  and  Asia  within  its  domin- 
ions, inhabited  by  a  patient  and  indomitable  race,  ever  ready  to 
exchange  the  luxury  and  adventure  of  the  South  for  the  hardships 
and  monotony  of  the  North,  was  daily  becoming  more  formidable 
to  the  liberties  of  Europe.  .  .  The  Russian  infantry  had  then  long 
been  celebrated  for  its  immovable  firmness.  Her  immense  popula- 
tion, amounting  then  in  Europe  alone  to  nearly  thirty-five  millions, 
afforded  an  inexhaustible  supply  of  men.  Her  soldiers,  inured  to 
heat  and  cold  from  their  infancy,  and  actuated  by  a  blind  devotion 
to  their  czar,  united  the  steady  valor  of  the  English  to  the  impetu- 
ous energy  of  the  French  troops."  So,  also,  we  read  how  the 
haughty  aggressions  of  Bonaparte  "went  to  excite  a  national  feel- 
ing from  the  banks  of  the  Borysthenes  to  the  wall  of  China,  and 
to  unite  against  him  the  wild  and  uncivilized  inhabitants  of  an 
extended  empire,  possessed  by  a  love  of  their  religion,  their  govern- 
ment and  their  country,  and  having  a  character  of  stem  devotion, 
which  he  was  incapable  of  estimating."  But  the  Russia  of  170t) 
had  no  such  forces  to  oppose  to  an  assailant.     Hor  whole  popula- 


430  GREAT   BATTLES   OF   ALL   NATIONS 

tion  then  was  below  sixteen  millions;  and,  what  is  far  more  im- 
portant, this  population  had  neither  acquired  military  spirit  nor 
strong  nationality,  nor  was  it  united  in  loyal  attachment  to  its 
ruler. 

Peter  had  wisely  abolished  the  old  regular  troops  of  the  empire, 
the  Strehtzes ;  but  the  forces  which  he  had  raised  in  their  stead  on 
a  new  and  foreign  plan,  and  principally  oflBcered  with  foreigners, 
had,  before  the  Swedish  invasion,  given  no  proof  that  they  could 
be  relied  on.  In  numerous  encounters  with  the  Swedes,  Peter's 
soldiery  had  run  like  sheep  before  inferior  numbers.  Great  discon- 
tent, also,  had  been  excited  among  all  classes  of  the  community  by 
the  arbitrary  changes  which  their  great  emperor  introduced,  many 
of  which  clashed  with  the  most  cherished  national  prejudices  of  his 
subjects.  A  career  of  victory  and  prosperity  had  not  yet  raised 
Peter  above  the  reach  of  that  disaffection,  nor  had  superstitious 
obedience  to  the  czar  yet  become  the  characteristic  of  the  Musco- 
vite mind.  The  victorious  occupation  of  Moscow  by  Charles  XII. 
would  have  quelled  the  Russian  nation  as  effectually  as  had  been 
the  case  when  Batou  Khan,  and  other  ancient  invaders,  captured 
the  capital  of  primitive  Muscovy.  How  little  such  a  triumph 
could  effect  toward  subduing  modern  Russia,  the  fate  of  Napoleon 
demonstrated  at  once  and  forever. 

The  character  of  Charles  XII.  has  been  a  favorite  theme  with 
historians,  moralists,  philosophers,  and  poets.  But  it  is  his  mili- 
tary conduct  during  the  campaign  in  Russia  that  alone  requires 
comment  here.  Napoleon,  in  the  Memoirs  dictated  by  him  at  St. 
Helena,  has  given  us  a  systematic  criticism  on  that,  among  other 
celebrated  campaigns,  his  own  Russian  campaign  included.  He 
labors  hard  to  prove  that  he  himself  observed  all  the  true  principles 
of  offensive  war;  and  probably  his  censures  on  Charles's  general- 
ship were  rather  highly  colored,  for  the  sake  of  making  his  own 
military  skill  stand  out  in  more  favorable  relief.  Yet,  after  mak- 
ing all  allowances,  we  must  admit  the  force  of  Napoleon's  strict- 
ures on  Charles's  tactics,  and  own  that  his  judgment,  though  severe, 
is  correct,  when  he  pronounces  that  the  Swedish  king,  unlike  his 
great  predecessor  Gustavus,  knew  nothing  of  the  art  of  war,  and 
was  nothing  more  than  a  brave  and  intrepid  soldier.     Such,  how- 


THE   BATTLE    OF    PULTOWA  431 

ever,  was  not  the  light  in  which  Charles  was  regarded  by  his  con- 
temporaries at  the  commencement  of  his  Russian  expedition.  His 
numerous  victories,  his  daring  and  resolute  spirit,  combined  with 
the  ancient  renown  of  the  Swedish  arms,  then  filled  all  Europe 
with  admiration  and  anxiety.  As  Johnson  expresses  it,  his  name 
was  then  one  at  which  the  world  grew  pale.  Even  Louis  le  Grand 
earnestly  solicited  his  assistance ;  and  our  own  Marlborough,  then 
in  the  full  career  of  his  victories,  was  specially  sent  bj'  the  English 
court  to  the  camp  of  Charles,  to  propitiate  the  hero  of  the  North  in 
favor  of  the  cause  of  the  allies,  and  to  prevent  the  Swedish  sword 
from  being  flung  into  the  scale  in  the  French  king's  favor.  But 
Charles  at  that  time  was  solely  bent  on  dethroning  the  sovereign 
of  Russia,  as  he  had  already  dethroned  the  sovereign  of  Poland, 
and  all  Europe  fully  believed  that  he  would  entirely  crush  the 
czar,  and  dictate  conditions  of  peace  in  the  Kremlin.  Charles 
himself  looked  on  success  as  a  matter  of  certainty,  and  the  ro- 
mantic extravagance  of  his  views  was  continually  increasing. 
"One  year,  he  thought,  would  suffice  for  the  conquest  of  Russia. 
The  court  of  Rome  was  next  to  feel  his  vengeance,  as  the  Pope 
had  dared  to  oppose  the  concession  of  religious  liberty  to  the 
Silesian  Protestants.  No  enterprise  at  that  time  appeared  im- 
possible to  him.  He  had  even  dispatched  several  officers  privately 
into  Asia  and  Egypt,  to  take  plans  of  the  towns  and  examine  into 
the  strength  and  resources  of  those  countries." 

Napoleon  thus  epitomizes  the  earlier  operations  of  Charles's 
invasion  of  Russia: 

"That  prince  set  out  from  his  camp  at  Aldstadt,  near  Leipsic, 
in  September,  1707,  at  the  head  of  forty-five  thousand  men,  and 
traversed  Poland;  twenty  thousand  men,  under  Count  Lewen- 
haupt,  disembarked  at  Riga;  and  fifteen  thousand  were  in  Fin- 
land. He  was  therefore  in  a  condition  to  have  brought  together 
eighty  thousand  of  the  best  troops  in  the  world.  He  left  ten 
thousand  men  at  "Warsaw  to  guard  King  Stanislaus,  and  in  Janu- 
ary, 1708,  arrived  at  Grodno,  where  he  wintered.  In  June  he 
crossed  the  forest  of  Minsk,  and  presented  himself  before  Borisov; 
forced  the  Russian  army,  which  occupied  the  left  bank  of  the 
Beresina;   defeated  twenty  thousand  Russians  who  were  strongly 


432  GREAT    BATTLES    OF    ALL    NATIONS 

intrenched  behind  marshes;  passed  the  Borysthenes  at  Mohilov, 
and  vanquished  a  corps  of  sixteen  thousand  Muscovites  near 
Smolen^iko  on  the  22d  of  September.  He  was  now  advanced  to 
the  confines  of  Lithuania,  and  was  about  to  enter  Russia  proper; 
the  czar,  alarmed  at  his  approach,  made  him  proposals  of  peace. 
Up  to  this  time  all  his  movements  were  conformable  to  rule,  and 
his  communications  were  well  secured.  He  was  master  of  Poland 
and  Riga,  and  only  ten  days'  march  distant  from  Moscow;  and  it 
is  probable  that  he  would  have  reached  that  capital,  had  he  not 
quitted  the  high  road  thither,  and  directed  his  steps  toward  the 
Ukraine,  in  order  to  form  a  junction  with  Mazeppa,  who  brought 
him  only  six  thousand  men.  By  this  movement,  his  line  of  opera- 
tions, beginning  at  Sweden,  exposed  his  flank  to  Russia  for  a  dis- 
tance of  four  hundred  leagues,  and  he  was  unable  to  protect  it,  or 
to  receive  either  re-enforcements  or  assistance." 

Napoleon  severely  censures  this  neglect  of  one  of  the  great  rules 
of  war.  He  points  out  that  Charles  had  not  organized  his  war, 
like  Hannibal,  on  the  principle  of  relinquishing  all  communications 
with  home,  keeping  all  his  forces  concentrated,  and  creating  a  base 
of  operations  in  the  conquered  country.  Such  had  been  the  bold 
system  of  the  Carthaginian  general ;  but  Charles  acted  on  no  such 
principle,  inasmuch  as  he  caused  Lewenhaupt,  one  of  his  generals 
who  commanded  a  considerable  detachment,  and  escorted  a  most 
important  convoy,  to  follow  him  at  a  distance  of  twelve  days' 
march.  By  this  dislocation  of  his  forces  he  exposed  Lewenhaupt 
to  be  overwhelmed  separately  by  the  full  force  of  the  enemy,  and 
deprived  tho  troops  under  his  own  command  of  the  aid  which  that 
general's  men  and  stores  might  have  afforded  at  the  very  crisis  of 
the  campaign. 

The  czar  had  collected  an  army  of  about  one  hundred  thousand 
effective  men;  and  though  the  Swedes,  in  tlie  beginning  of  the 
invasion,  were  successful  in  every  encounter,  the  Russian  troops 
were  gradually  acquiring  discipline;  and  Peter  and  his  officers 
were  learning  generalship  from  their  victors,  as  the  Thebans  of 
old  learned  it  from  the  Spartans.  "When  LeWenhaupt,  in  the 
October  of  1708,  was  striving  to  join  Charles  in  the  Ukraine,  the 
czar  suddenly  attacked  him  near  the  Borysthenes  with  an  over- 


THE    BATTLE    OF    PULTOWA  433 

whelming  force  of  fifty  thousand  Russians.  Lewenhaupt  fought 
bravely  for  three  days,  and  succeeded  in  cutting  his  way  through 
the  enemy  with  about  four  thousand  of  his  men  to  where  Charles 
awaited  him  near  the  River  Desna ;  but  upward  of  eight  thousand 
Swedes  fell  in  these  battles;  Lewenhaupt's  cannon  and  ammuni- 
tion were  abandoned ;  and  the  whole  of  his  important  convoy  of 
provisions,  on  which  Charles  and  his  half -starved  troops  were  rely- 
ing, fell  into  the  enemy's  hands.  Charles  was  compelled  to  remain 
in  the  Ukraine  during  the  winter;  but  in  the  spring  of  1709  he 
moved  forward  toward  Moscow,  and  invested  the  fortified  town 
of  Pultowa,  on  the  River  Vorskla;  a  place  where  the  czar  had 
stored  up  large  supplies  of  provisions  and  military  stores,  and 
which  commanded  the  passes  leading  toward  Moscow.  The  pos- 
session of  this  place  would  have  given  Charles  the  means  of  sup- 
plying all  the  wants  of  his  suffering  army,  and  would  also  have 
furnished  him  with  a  secure  base  of  operations  for  his  advance 
against  the  Muscovite  capital.  The  siege  was  therefore  hotly 
pressed  by  the  Swedes;  the  garrison  resisted  obstinately;  and 
the  czar,  feeling  the  importance  of  saving  the  town,  advanced 
in  June  to  its  relief,  at  the  head  of  an  army  from  fifty  to  sixty 
thousand  strong. 

Both  sovereigns  now  prepared  for  the  general  action,  which 
each  saw  to  be  inevitable,  and  which  each  felt  would  be  decisive 
of  his  own  and  of  his  country's  destiny.  The  czar,  by  some  mas- 
terlj"  maneuvers,  crossed  the  Vorskla,  and  posted  his  army  on  the 
same  side  of  that  river  with  the  besiegers,  but  a  little  higher  up. 
The  Vorskla  falls  into  the  Borj-sthenes  about  fifteen  leagues  below 
Pultowa,  and  the  czar  ai-ranged  his  forces  in  two  lines,  stretching 
from  one  river  toward  the  other,  so  that  if  the  Swedes  attacked 
him  knd  were  repulsed,  they  would  be  driven  backward  into  the 
acute  angle  formed  by  the  two  streams  at  their  junction.  He  forti- 
fied these  lines  with  several  redoubts,  lined  with  heavy  artillery ; 
and  his  troops,  both  horse  and  foot,  were  in  the  best  possible  condi- 
tion, and  amply  provided  with  stores  and  ammunition.  Charles's 
forces  were  about  twenty-four  thousand  strong.  But  not  more 
than  half  of  these  were  Swedes :  so  much  had  battle,  famine,  fa- 
tigue, and  the  deadly  frosts  of  Russia  thinned  the  gallant  bands 


434  GREAT   BATTLES   OF   ALL   NATIONS 

which  the  Swedish  king  and  Lewenhaupt  had  led  to  the  Ukraine. 
The  other  twelve  thousand  men,  under  Charles,  were  Cossacks 
and  Wallachians,  who  had  joined  him  in  the  country.  On  hearing 
that  the  czar  was  about  to  attack  him,  he  deemed  that  his  dignity- 
required  that  he  himself  should  be  the  assailant;  and,  leading  his 
army  out  of  their  intrenched  lines  before  the  town,  he  advanced 
with  them  against  the  Russian  redoubts. 

He  had  been  severely  wounded  in  the  foot  in  a  skirmish  a  few 
days  before,  and  was  borne  in  a  litter  along  the  ranks  into  the  thick 
of  the  fight.  Notwithstanding  the  fearful  disparity  of  numbers 
and  disadvantage  of  position,  the  Swedes  never  showed  their  an- 
cient valor  more  nobly  than  on  that  dreadful  day.  Nor  do  their 
Cossack  and  Wallachian  allies  seem  to  have  been  unworthy  of 
fighting  side  by  side  with  Charles's  veterans.  Two  of  the  Russian 
redoubts  were  actually  entered,  and  the  Swedish  infantry  began 
to  raise  the  cry  of  victory.  But,  on  the  other  side,  neither  general 
nor  soldiers  flinched  in  their  duty.  The  Russian  cannonade  and 
musketry  were  kept  up;  fresh  masses  of  defenders  were  poured 
into  the  fortifications,  and  at  length  the  exhausted  remnants  of  the 
Swedish  columns  recoiled  from  the  blood-stained  redoubts.  Then 
the  czar  led  the  infantry  and  cavalry  of  his  first  line  outside  the 
works,  drew  them  up  steadily  and  skillfully,  and  the  action  was 
renewed  along  the  whole  fronts  of  the  two  armies  on  the  open 
ground.  Each  sovereign  exposed  his  life  freely  in  the  world-win- 
ning battle,  and  on  each  side  the  troops  fought  obstinately  and 
eagerly  under  their  ruler's  eyes.  It  was  not  till  two  hours  from 
the  commencement  of  the  action  that,  overpowered  by  numbers, 
the  hitherto  invincible  Swedes  gave  way.  All  was  then  hopeless 
disorder  and  irreparable  rout.  Driven  downward  to  where  the 
rivers  join,  the  fugitive  Swedes  surrendered  to  their  victorious 
pursuers,  or  perished  in  the  waters  of  the  Borysthenes.  Only  a 
few  hundreds  swam  that  river  with  their  king  and  the  Cossack 
Mazeppa,  and  escaped  into  the  Turkish  territor}-.  Nearly  ten 
thousand  lay  killed  and  wounded  in  the  redoubts  and  on  the 
field  of  battle. 

In  the  joy  of  his  heart  the  czar  exclaimed,  when  the  strife  was 
over,  "That  the  son  of  the  morning  had  fallen  from  heaven,  and 


THE    BATTLE    OF    PULTOWA  435, 

that  the  foundation  of  St.  Petersburg  at  length  stood  firm."  Even 
on  that  battlefield,  near  the  Ukraine,  the  Russian  emperor's  first 
thoughts  were  of  conquests  and  aggrandizement  on  the  Baltic. 
The  peace  of  Nystadt,  which  transferred  the  fairest  provinces  of 
Sweden  to  Russia,  ratified  the  judgment  of  battle  which  was  pro- 
nounced at  Pultowa.  Attacks  on  Turkey  and  Persia  by  Russia 
commenced  almost  directly  after  that  victory.  And  though  the 
czar  failed  in  his  first  attempts  against  the  sultan,  the  successors 
of  Peter  have,  one  and  all,  carried  on  a  uniformly  aggressive  and 
uniformly  successive  system  of  policy  against  Turkey,  and  against 
every  other  state,  Asiatic  as  well  as  European,  which  has  had  the 
misfortune  of  having  Russia  for  a  neighbor. 

Orators  and  authors,  who  have  discussed  the  progress  of  Russia, 
have  often  alluded  to  the  similitude  between  the  modern  extension 
of  the  Muscovite  empire  and  the  extension  of  the  Roman  dominions 
in  ancient  times.  But  attention  has  scarcely  been  drawn  to  the 
closeness  of  the  parallel  between  conquering  Russia  and  conquering 
Rome,  not  only  in  the  extent  of  conquests,  but  in  the  means  of 
effecting  conquest.  The  history  of  Rome  during  the  century  and 
a  half  which  followed  the  close  of  the  second  Punic  war,  and  dur- 
ing which  her  largest  acquisitions  of  territory  were  made,  should 
be  minutely  compared  with  the  historj-  of  Russia  for  the  last  one 
hundred  and  fifty  j^ears.  The  main  points  of  similitude  can  only 
be  indicated  in  these  pages ;  but  they  deserve  the  fullest  considera- 
tion. Above  all,  the  sixth  chapter  of  Montesquieu's  great  treatise 
on  Rome,  "De  la  conduite  que  les  Remains  tinrent  pour  soumettre 
les  peuples, ' '  should  be  carefully  studied  by  every  one  who  watches 
the  career  and  policy  of  Russia.  The  classic  scholar  will  remember 
the  state-craft  of  the  Roman  senate,  which  took  care  in  everj'-  for- 
eign war  to  appear  in  the  character  of  a  Protector.  Thus  Rome 
protected  the  ^tolians  and  the  Greek  cities  against  Macedon;  she 
protected  Bithynia  and  other  small  Asiatic  states  against  the 
Syrian  kings;  she  protected  Numidia  against  Carthage;  and  in 
numerous  other  instances  assumed  the  same  specious  character. 
But  "woe  to  the  people  whose  hberty  depends  on  the  continued 
forbearance  of  an  overmighty  protector."  Every  state  which 
Rome  protected  was  ultimately  subjugated  and  absorbed  by  her. 


436       GREAT  BATTLES  OF  ALL  NATIONS 

And  Russia  has  been  the  protector  of  Poland — the  protector  of  the 
Crimea — the  protector  of  Courland — the  protector  of  Georgia,  Im- 
meritia,  Mingreha,  the  Tcherkessian  and  Caucasian  tribes,  etc. 
She  has  first  protected  and  then  appropriated  them  alL  She  pro- 
tects Moldavia  and  Wallachia.  A  few  years  ago  she  became  the 
protector  of  Turkey  from  Mehemet  Ali ;  and  since  the  summer  of 
1849,  she  has  made  herself  the  protector  of  Austria. 

"When  the  partisans  of  Russia  speak  of  the  disinterestedness 
with  which  she  withdrew  her  protecting  troops  from  Constanti- 
nople and  from  Hungary,  let  us  here  also  mark  the  ominous  exact- 
ness of  the  parallel  between  her  and  Rome.  "While  the  ancient 
world  yet  contained  a  number  of  independent  states,  which  might 
have  made  a  formidable  league  against  Rome  if  she  had  alarmed 
them  by  openly  avowing  her  ambitious  schemes,  Rome's  favorite 
policy  was  seeming  disinterestedness  and  moderation.  After  her 
first  war  against  Philip,  after  that  against  Antiochus,  and  many 
others,  victorious  Rome  promptly  withdrew  her  troops  from  the 
territories  which  they  occupied.  She  affected  to  employ  her  arms 
only  for  the  good  of  others.  But,  when  the  favorable  moment 
came,  she  always  found  a  pretext  for  marching  her  legions  back 
into  each  coveted  district,  and  making  it  a  Roman  province.  Fear, 
not  moderation,  is  the  only  effective  check  on  the  ambition  of  such 
powers  as  ancient  Rome  and  modern  Russia.  The  amount  of  that 
fear  depends  on  the  amount  of  timely  vigilance  and  energy  which 
other  states  choose  to  employ  against  the  common  enemy  of  their 
freedom  and  national  independence.  [Creasy. 


CHAPTER    XIX 
THE    BATTLE   OF   QUEBEC 

VICTORY    WITH    WHICH    THE    HISTORY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES 

BEGAN  — WOLFE  AND    MONTCALM  ON  THE    HEIGHTS 

OF    ABRAHAM 

A.  D.  1759 

THE  victory  which  gave  Quebec  to  England  was  one  of  the 
most   far-reaching  in  its   results.     "AVith   the   triumph  of 
"Wolfe  on  the  Heights  of  Abraham,"  says  Green,  "began 
the  history  of  the  United  States." 

The  hero  of  that  historic  fight  wore  a  singularly  unheroic 
aspect.  Wolfe's  face,  in  the  famous  picture  by  "West,  resembles 
that  of  a  nervous  and  sentimental  boy — he  was  an  adjutant  at 
sixteen,  and  only  thirty-three  when  he  fell,  mortally  wounded, 
under  the  walls  of  Quebec.  His  forehead  and  chin  receded;  his 
nose,  tip-tilted  heavenward,  formed  with  his  other  features  the 
point  of  an  obtuse  triangle.  His  hair  was  fiery  red,  his  shoulders 
narrow,  his  legs  a  pair  of  attenuated  spindle-shanks;  he  Avas  a 
chronic  invalid.  But  between  his  fiery  poll  and  his  plebeian  and 
upturned  nose  flashed  a  pair  of  eyes — keen,  piercing,  and  steady 
— worthy  of  Ceesar  or  of  Napoleon.  In  warlike  genius  he  was  on 
land  as  Nelson  was  on  sea,  chivalrous,  fiery,  intense.  A  "mag- 
netic" man,  with  a  strange  gift  of  impressing  himself  on  the 
imagination  of  his  soldiers,  and  of  so  penetrating  the  whole  force 
he  commanded  with  his  own  spirit  that  in  his  hands  it  became 
a  terrible  and  almost  resistless  instrument  of  war.  The  gift  for 
choosing  fit  agents  is  one  of  the  highest  qualities  of  genius;  and 
it  is  a  sign  of  Pitt's  piercing  insight  into  character  that,  for  the 
great  task  of  overthrowing  the  French  power  in  Canada,  he  chose 
what  seemed  to  commonplace  vision  a  rickety,  hypochondriacaL 
and  very  youthful  colonel  like  "Wolfe. 

(437) 


438  GREAT   BATTLES    OF  ALL    NATIONS 

Pitt's  strategy  for  the  American  campaign  was  spacious,  not 
to  say  grandiose.  A  line  of  strong  French  posts,  ranging  from 
Duquesne,  on  the  Ohio,  to  Ticonderoga,  on  Lake  Champlain,  held 
the  English  settlements  on  the  coast  girdled,  as  in  an  iron  band, 
from  all  extension  westward;  while  Quebec,  perched  in  almost 
impregnable  strength  on  the  frowning  cliffs  which  look  down  on 
the  St.  Lawrence,  was  the  center  of  the  French  power  in  Canada. 
Pitt's  plan  was  that  Amherst,  with  twelve  thousand  men,  should 
capture  Ticonderoga;  Prideaux,  with  another  powerful  force, 
should  carry  Montreal;  and  "Wolfe,  with  seven  thousand  men, 
should  invest  Quebec,  where  Amherst  and  Prideaux  were  to  join 
him.  Two-thirds  of  this  great  plan  broke  down.  Amherst  and 
Prideaux,  indeed,  succeeded  in  their  local  operations,  but  neither 
was  able  to  join  Wolfe,  who  had  to  carry  out  with  one  army  the 
task  for  which  three  were  designed. 

On  June  21,  1759,  the  advanced  squadron  of  the  fleet  convey- 
ing "Wolfe  came  working  up  the  St.  Lawrence.  To  deceive  the 
enemy  they  flew  the  white  flag,  and,  as  the  eight  great  ships 
came  abreast  of  the  Isle  of  Orleans,  the  good  people  of  Quebec 
persuaded  themselves  it  was  a  French  fleet  bringing  supplies  and 
re-enforcements.  The  bells  rang  a  welcome ;  flags  waved.  Boats 
put  eagerly  off  to  greet  the  approaching  ships.  But  as  these  swung 
round  at  their  anchorage  the  white  flag  of  France  disappeared,  and 
the  red  ensign  of  Great  Britain  flew  in  its  place.  The  crowds, 
struck  suddenly  dumb,  watched  the  gleam  of  the  hostile  flag  with 
chap-fallen  faces.  A  priest,  who  was  staring  at  the  ships  through 
a  telescope,  actually  dropped  dead  with  the  excitement  and  passion 
created  by  the  sight  of  the  British  fleet.  On  June  2G  the  main 
body  of  the  fleet,  bringing  "Wolfe  himself  with  seven  thousand 
troops,  was  in  sight  of  the  lofty  cliffs  on  which  Quebec  stands; 
Cook,  afterward  the  famous  navigator,  master  of  the  "Mercury," 
sounding  ahead  of  the  fleet.  "Wolfe  at  once  seized  the  Isle  of  Or- 
leans, which  shelters  the  basin  of  Quebec  to  the  east,  and  divides 
the  St.  Lawrence  into  two  branches,  and,  with  a  few  officers, 
quickly  stood  on  the  western  point  of  the  isle.  At  a  glance  the 
desperate  natvire  of  the  task  committed  to  him  was  apparent. 

Quebec   stands   on   the   rocky   nose   of  a  promontory,    shaped 


THE   BATTLE    OF    QUEBEC 


439 


roughly  like  a  bull's  head,  looking  eastward.  The  St.  Lawrence 
flows  eastward  under  the  chin  of  the  head;  the  St.  Charles  runs, 
so  to  speak,  down  its  nose  from  the  north  to  meet  the  St.  Lawrence. 
The  city  itself  stands  on  lofty  cliffs,  and  as  Wolfe  looked  upon  it 


GENERAL  WOLFE 
After  a  painting  by  Sohaok  in  the  National  Portrait  OaUery 

on  that  June  evening  far  away,  it  was  girt  and  crowned  with  bat= 
teries.  The  banks  of  the  St.  Lawrence,  that  define  what  we  have 
called  the  throat  of  the  bull,  are  precipitous  and  lofty,  and  seem 
by  mere  natural  strength  to  defy  attack;  though  it  was  just  here, 
by  an  ant-like  track  up  two  hundred  and  fifty  feet  of  almost  per- 
r^cndicular  cliff,  Wolfe  actually  cHmbed  to  the  Plains  of  Abraham. 


440  GREAT   BATTLES    OF    ALL    NATIONS 

To  the  east  of  Quebec  is  a  curve  of  lofty  shore,  seven  miles  long, 
between  the  St.  Charles  and  tlie  Montmorenci.  When  Wolfe's  eye 
followed  those  seven  miles  of  curving  shore,  he  saw  the  tents  of 
a  French  army  double  his  own  in  strength,  and  commanded  by  the 
most  brilliant  French  soldier  of  his  generation,  Montcalm.  Quebec, 
in  a  word,  was  a  great  natural  fortress,  attacked  by  nine  thousand 
troops  and  defended  by  sixteen  thousand ;  and  if  a  daring  miHtary 
genius  urged  the  English  attack,  a  soldier  as  daring  and  wellnigh 
as  able  as  Wolfe  directed  the  French  defense. 

Montcalm  gave  a  proof  of  his  fine  quality  as  a  soldier  within 
twenty-four  hours  of  the  appearance  of  the  British  fleet.  The  very 
afternoon  the  British  ships  dropped  anchor  a  terrific  tempest  swept 
over  the  harbor,  drove  the  transports  from  their  moorings,  dashed 
the  great  ships  of  war  against  each  other,  and  wrought  immense 
mischief.  The  tempest  dropped  as  quickly  as  it  had  arisen.  The 
night  fell  black  and  moonless.  Toward  midnight  the  British  senti- 
nels on  the  point  of  the  Isle  of  Orleans  saw  drifting  silently  through 
the  gloom  the  outlines  of  a  cluster  of  ships.  They  were  eight  huge 
fire-ships,  floating  mines  packed  with  explosives.  The  nerve  of  the 
French  sailors,  fortunately  for  the  British,  failed  them,  and  they 
fired  the  ships  too  soon.  But  the  spectacle  of  these  flaming  mon- 
sters as  they  drifted  toward  the  British  fleet  was  appalling.  The 
river  showed  ebony-black  under  the  white  flames.  The  glare 
lighted  up  the  river  cliffs,  the  roofs  of  the  city,  the  tents  of  Mont- 
calm, the  slopes  of  the  distant  hills,  the  black  hulls  of  the  British 
ships.  It  was  one  of  the  most  stupendous  exhibitions  of  fireworks 
ever  witnessed !  But  it  was  almost  as  harmless  as  a  display  of 
fireworks.  The  boats  from  the  British  fleet  were  by  this  time  in 
the  water,  and  pulling  with  steady  daring  to  meet  these  drifting 
volcanoes.  They  were  grappled,  towed  to  the  banks,  and  stranded, 
and  there  they  spluttered  and  smoked  and  flamed  till  the  white 
light  of  the  dawn  broke  over  them.  The  only  mischief  achieved 
by  these  fire-ships  was  to  burn  alive  one  of  their  own  captains  and 
five  or  six  of  his  men,  who  failed  to  escape  in  their  boats. 

Wolfe,  in  addition  to  the  Isle  of  Orleans,  seized  Point  Levi, 
opposite  the  city,  and  this  gave  him  complete  command  of  the 
basin  of  Quebec;   from  his  batteries  on  Point  Levi,  too,  he  could 


THE    BATTLE    OF    QUEBEC  441 

fire  directly  on  the  city,  and  destroy  it  if  he  could  not  capture  it. 
He  himself  landed  the  main  body  of  his  troops  on  the  east  bank 
of  the  Montmorenci,  Montcalm's  position,  strongly  intrenched, 
being  between  him  and  the  city.  Between  the  two  armies,  how- 
ever, ran  the  deep  gorge  through  which  the  swift  current  of  the 
Montmorenci  rushes  down  to  join  the  St.  Lawrence.  The  gorge 
is  barely  a  gunshot  in  width,  but  of  stupendous  depth.  The  Mont- 
morenci tumbles  over  its  rocky  bed  Avith  a  speed  that  turns  the 
Hashing  waters  almost  to  the  whiteness  of  snow.  Was  there  ever 
a  more  curious  military  position  adopted  by  a  great  general  in  the 
face  of  superior  forces !  WoKe's  tiny  army  was  distributed  into 
three  camps :  his  right  wing  on  the  Montmorenci  was  six  miles 
distant  from  his  left  ^vmg  at  Point  Levi,  and  between  the  center, 
on  the  Isle  of  Orleans,  and  the  two  \vings,  ran  the  two  branches 
of  the  St.  Lawrence.  That  Wolfe  deliberately  made  such  a  dis- 
tribution of  his  forces  under  the  very  eyes  of  Montcalm  showed 
his  amazing  daring.  And  yet  beyond  firing  across  the  Montmo- 
renci on  Montcalm's  left  wing,  and  bombarding  the  city  from  Point 
Levi,  the  British  general  could  accomplish  nothing.  Montcalm 
knew  that  winter  must  compel  Wolfe  to  retreat,  and  he  remained 
stubbornly  but  warily  on  the  defensive. 

On  July  18  the  British  performed  a  daring  feat.  In  the  dark- 
ness of  the  night  two  of  the  men-of-war  and  several  sloops  ran 
past  the  Quebec  batteries  and  reached  the  river  above  the  town ; 
they  destroyed  some  fire-ships  they  found  there,  and  cut  off  Mont- 
calm's communication  bj"  water  Avith  Montreal.  This  rendered  it 
necessary  for  the  French  to  establish  guards  on  the  line  of  preci- 
pices between  Quebec  and  Cap-Rouge.  On  July  28  the  French 
repeated  the  experiment  of  fire-ships  on  a  still  more  gigantic  scale. 
A  vast  fire-raft  was  constructed,  composed  of  some  seventy  schoon- 
ers, boats,  and  rafts,  chained  together,  and  loaded  A^th  combusti- 
bles and  explosives.  The  fire-raft  is  described  as  being  one  hundred 
fathoms  in  length,  and  its  appearance,  as  it  came  drifting  on  the 
current,  a  mass  of  roaring  fire,  discharging  every  instant  a  shower 
of  missiles,  was  terrifying.  But  the  British  sailors  dashed  down 
upon  it,  broke  the  huge  raft  into  fragments,  and  towed  them 
easily  ashore.      "Hang  it,  Jack,"  one   sailor  was   heard   to  say 


442  GREAT    BATTLES    OF    ALL    NATIONS 

to  his  mate  as  he  tugged  at  the  oar,  "didst  thee  ever  take 
hell  in  tow  before?" 

Time  was  on  Montcalm's  side,  and  unless  Wolfe  could  draw 
him  from  his  impregnable  intrenchments  and  compel  him  to  fight, 
the  game  was  lost.  When  the  tide  fell,  a  stretch  of  shoal  a  few 
score  yards  wide  was  left  bare  on  the  French  side  of  the  Mont- 
morenci.  The  slope  that  covered  this  was  steep,  slippery  with 
grass,  crowned  by  a  great  battery,  and  swept  by  the  cross-fire 
of  intrenchments  on  either  flank.  Montcalm,  too,  holding  the  in- 
terior lines,  could  bring  to  the  defense  of  this  point  twice  the  force 
with  which  Wolfe  could  attack  it.  Yet  to  Wolfe's  keen  eyes  this 
seemed  the  one  vulnerable  point  in  Montcalm's  front,  and  on 
July  31  he  made  a  desperate  leap  upon  it. 

The  attack  was  planned  with  great  art.  The  British  batteries 
thundered  across  the  Montmorenci,  and  a  feint  was  made  of  ford- 
ing that  river  higher  up,  so  as  to  distract  the  attention  of  the 
French,  while  the  boats  of  the  fleet  threatened  a  landing  near 
Quebec  itself.  At  half -past  five  the  tide  was  at  its  lowest,  and 
the  boat-flotilla,  swinging  round  at  a  signal,  pulled  at  speed  for 
the  patch  of  muddy  foreshore  already  selected.  The  Grenadiers 
and  Royal  Americans  leaped  ashore  in  the  mud,  and — waiting 
neither  for  orders,  nor  leaders,  nor  supports — dashed  up  the  hill 
to  storm  the  redoubt.  They  reached  the  first  redoubt,  tumbled 
over  it  and  through  it,  only  to  find  themselves  breathless  in  a  semi- 
circle of  fire.  The  men  fell  fast,  but  yet  struggled  fiercely  upward. 
A  furious  storm  of  rain  broke  over  the  combatants  at  that  moment, 
and  made  the  steep  grass-covered  slope  as  slippery  as  mere  glass. 
"We  could  not  see  half-way  down  the  hill,"  writes  the  French 
oflBcer  in  command  of  the  battery  on  the  summit.  But  through 
the  smoke  and  the  driving  rain  they  could  still  see  the  Grenadiers 
and  Royal  Americans  in  ragged  clusters,  scarce  able  to  stand,  yet 
striving  desperately  to  climb  upward.  The  reckless  ardor  of  the 
Grenadiers  had  spoiled  Wolfe's  attack,  the  sudden  storm  helped 
to  save  the  French,  and  Wolfe  withdrew  his  broken  but  furious 
battalions,  having  lost  some  five  hundred  of  his  best  men  and 
oflBcers, 

The  exultant  French  regarded  the  siege  as  practically  over ;  but 


(443) 


444  GREAT    BATTLES    OF   ALL    NATIONS 

Wolfe  was  a  man  of  heroic  and  quenchless  tenacity,  and  never  so 
dangerous  as  when  he  seemed  to  be  in  the  last  straits.  He  held 
doggedly  on,  in  spite  of  cold  and  tempest  and  disease.  His  own 
frail  bordy  broke  down,  and  for  the  first  time  the  shadow  of  de- 
})ression  fell  on  the  British  camps  when  they  no  longer  saw  the  red 
lisad  and  lean  and  scraggy  body  of  their  general  moving  among 
them.  For  a  week,  between  August  22  and  August  29,  he  lay 
apparently  a  dying  man,  his  face,  with  its  curious  angles,  white 
with  pain  and  haggard  with  disease.  But  he  struggled  out  again, 
and  framed  yet  new  plans  of  attack.  On  September  10  the  cap- 
tains of  the  men-of-war  held  a  council  on  board  the  flagship,  and 
resolved  that  the  approach  of  winter  required  the  fleet  to  leave 
Quebec  without  delay.  By  this  time,  too,  Wolfe's  scanty  force 
was  diminished  one-seventh  by  disease  or  losses  in  battle.  Wolfe, 
however,  had  now  formed  the  plan  which  ultimately  gave  him 
success,  though  at  the  cost  of  his  own  life. 

From  a  tiny  little  cove,  now  known  as  Wolfe's  Cove,  five  miles 
to  the  west  of  Quebec,  a  path,  scarcely  accessible  to  a  goat,  climbs 
up  the  face  of  the  great  clifl^,  nearly  two  hundred  and  fifty  feet 
high.  The  place  was  so  inaccessible  that  only  a  post  of  one  hun- 
dred men  kept  guard  over  it.  Up  that  track,  in  the  blackness  of 
the  night,  Wolfe  resolved  to  lead  his  army  to  the  attack  on  Quebec ! 
It  needed  the  most  exquisite  combinations  to  bring  the  attacking 
force  to  that  point  from  three  separate  quarters,  in  the  gloom  of 
night,  at  a  given  moment,  and  without  a  sound  that  could  alarm 
the  enemy.  Wolfe  withdrew  his  force  from  the  Montmorenci,  em- 
barked them  on  board  his  ships,  and  made  every  sign  of  departure. 
Montcalm  mistrusted  these  signs,  and  suspected  Wolfe  would  make 
at  least  one  more  leap  on  Quebec  before  withdrawing.  Yet  he  did 
not  in  the  least  suspect  Wolfe's  real  designs.  He  discussed,  in 
fact,  the  very  plan  Wolfe  adopted,  but  dismissed  it  by  saying,  ' '  We 
need  not  suppose  that  the  enemy  have  wings."  The  British  shi})s 
were  kept  moving  up  and  down  the  river  front  for  several  days, 
so  as  to  distract  and  pei-plex  the  enemy.  On  September  12  Wolfe's 
plans  were  complete,  and  he  issued  his  final  orders.  One  sentence 
in  them  curiously  anticipates  Nelson's  famous  signal  at  Trafalgar. 
"Officers   and   men,"  wrote  Wolfe,    "will   remember   what  their 


THE  BATTLE  OF  QUEBEC  445 

country  expects  of  them."  A  feint  on  Beauport,  five  miles  to  the 
east  of  Quebec,  as  evening  fell,  made  Montcalm  mass  his  troops 
there ;  but  it  was  at  a  point  five  miles  west  of  Quebec  the  real 
attack  was  directed. 

At  two  o'clock  at  night  two  lanterns  appeared  for  a  minute  in 
the  maintop  shrouds  of  the  "Sunderland."  It  was  the  signal,  and 
from  the  fleet,  from  the  Isle  of  Orleans,  and  from  Point  Levi,  the 
English  boats  stole  silently  out,  freighted  with  some  one  thousand 
seven  hundred  troops,  and  converged  toward  the  point  in  the  black 
wall  of  cliffs  agreed  upon.  Wolfe  himself  was  in  the  leading  boat 
of  the  flotilla.  As  the  boats  drifted  silently  through  the  darkness 
on  that  desperate  adventure,  Wolfe,  to  the  officers  about  him,  com- 
menced to  recite  Gray's  "Elegy" — 

"The  boast  of  heraldry,  the  pomp  of  power, 

And  all  that  beauty,  all  that  wealth  e'er  gave, 
Await  alike  the  inevitable  hour. 

The  paths  of  glory  lead  but  to  the  grave." 

"Now,  gentlemen,"  he  added,  "I  would  rather  have  written  that 
poem  than  take  Quebec."  Wolfe,  in  fact,  was  half  poet,  half  sol- 
dier. Suddenly  from  the  great  wall  of  rock  and  forest  to  their  left 
broke  the  challenge  of  a  French  sentinel — "Qui  vive?"  A  High- 
land officer  of  Eraser's  regiment,  who  spoke  French  fluently,  an  • 
swered  the  challenge.  "France."  "A  quel  regiment?"  "De  la 
Reine,"  answered  the  Highlander.  As  it  happened,  the  French 
expected  a  flotilla  of  provision  boats,  and  after  a  little  further 
dialogue,  in  which  the  cool  Highlander  completely"  deceived  the 
French  sentries,  the  British  were  allowed  to  slip  past  in  the  dark- 
ness. The  tiny  cove  was  safely  reached,  the  boats  stole  silently  up 
Avithout  a  blunder,  twenty-four  volunteers  from  the  Light  Infantry 
leaped  from  their  boat  and  led  the  way  in  single  file  up  the  path 
that  ran  like  a  thread  along  the  face  of  the  cliff.  Wolfe  sat  eagerly 
listening  in  his  boat  below.  Suddenly  from  the  summit  he  saw  the 
flash  of  the  muskets  and  heard  the  stern  shout  which  told  him  his 
men  were  up.  A  clear,  firm  order,  and  the  troops  sitting  silent  in 
the  boats  leaped  ashore,  and  the  long  file  of  soldiers,  like  a  chain  of 
ants,  went  up  the  face  of  the  cliff,  Wolfe  among  the  foremost,  and 
formed  in  order  on  the  plateau,  the  boats  meanwhile  rowing  back 


446  GREAT   BATTLES    OF    ALL   NATIONS 

at  speed  to  bring  up  the  remainder  of  the  troops.     Wolfe  was  at 
last  within  Montcalm's  guard! 

When  the  morning  of  the  13th  dawned,  the  British  army,  in  line 
of  battle,  stood  looking  down  on  Quebec.  Montcalm  quickly  heard 
the  news,  and  came  riding  furiously  across  the  St.  Charles  and 
past  the  city  to  the  scene  of  danger.  He  rode,  as  those  who  saw 
him  tell,  with  a  fixed  look  and  uttering  not  a  word.  The  vigi- 
lance of  months  was  rendered  worthless  by  that  amazing  night 
escalade.  When  he  reached  the  slopes  Montcalm  saw  before  him 
the  silent  red  wall  of  British  infantry,  the  Highlanders  with  wav- 
ing tartans  and  wind-blown  plumes — all  in  battle  array.  It  was 
not  a  detachment,  but  an  army ! 

The  fight  lasted  fifteen  minutes,  and  might  be  told  in  almost 
as  many  words.  Montcalm  brought  on  his  men  in  three  powerful 
columns,  in  number  double  that  of  Wolfe's  force.  The  British 
troops  stood  grimly  silent,  though  they  were  tormented  by  the  fire 
of  Indians  and  Canadians  lying  in  the  grass.  The  French  ad- 
vanced eagerly,  with  a  tumult  of  shouts  and  a  confused  fire ;  the 
British  moved  forward  a  few  rods,  halted,  dressed  their  hues,  and 
when  the  French  were  within  forty  paces  threw  in  one  fierce  vol- 
ley, so  sharply  timed  that  the  explosion  of  four  thousand  muskets 
sounded  like  the  sudden  blast  of  a  cannon.  Again,  again,  and 
yet  again,  the  flame  ran  from  end  to  end  of  the  steadfast  line. 
When  the  smoke  lifted,  the  French  coliman  were  wrecked.  The 
British  instantly  charged.  The  spirit  of  the  clan  awoke  in  Fraser's 
Highlanders:  they  flung  aside  their  muskets,  drew  their  broad- 
swords, and  with  a  fierce  Celtic  slogan  rushed  on  the  enemy. 
Never  was  a  charge  pressed  more  ruthlessly  home.  After  the 
fight  one  of  the  British  officers  wrote:  "There  was  not  a  bayonet 
in  the  three  leading  British  regiments,  nor  a  broadsword  among 
the  Highlanders,  that  was  not  crimson  with  the  blood  of  a  foe- 
man.'*  Wolfe  himself  charged  at  the  head  of  the  Grenadiers,  his 
bright  uniform  making  him  conspicuous.  He  was  shot  in  the 
wrist,  wrapped  a  handkerchief  round  the  wound,  and  still  ran 
forward.  Two  other  buUets  struck  him — one,  it  is  said,  fired  by 
a  British  deserter,  a  sergeant  broken  by  Wolfe  for  brutality  to  a 
private.     "Don't  let  the  soldiers  see  me  drop,"  said  Wolfe,  as  he 


THE  BATTLE  OF  QUEBEC  447 

fell,  to  an  officer  running  beside  him.  An  officer  of  the  Grenadiers, 
a  gentleman  volunteer,  and  a  private  carried  Wolfe  to  a  redoubt 
near.  He  refused  to  allow  a  surgeon  to  be  called.  "There  is  no 
need,"  he  said,  "it  is  all  over  with  me."  Then  one  of  the  httle 
group,  casting  a  look  at  the  smoke-covered  battlefield,  cried,  "They 
run!  See  how  they  run!"  "Who  run?"  said  the  dying  Wolfe, 
like  a  man  roused  from  sleep.  "The  enemy,  sir,"  was  the  answer. 
A  flash  of  life  came  back  to  Wolfe ;  the  eager  spirit  thrust  from 
it  the  swoon  of  death ;  he  gave  a  clear,  emphatic  order  for  cutting 
off  the  enemy's  retreat;  then,  turning  on  his  side,  he  added,  "Now 
God  be  praised;  I  die  in  peace." 

That  fight  determined  that  the  North  American  continent  should 
be  the  heritage  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  race.  And,  somehow,  the  popu- 
lar instinct,  when  the  news  reached  England,  realized  the  historic 
significance  of  the  event.  "When  we  first  heard  of  Wolfe's  glori- 
ous deed,"  writes  Thackeray  in  "The  Virginians" — "of  that  army 
marshaled  in  darkness  and  carried  silently  up  the  midnight  river 
— of  those  rocks  scaled  by  the  intrepid  leader  and  his  troops — of 
the  defeat  of  Montcalm  on  the  open  plain  by  the  sheer  valor  of  his 
conqueror— we  were  all  intoxicated  in  England  by  the  news." 
Not  merely  all  London,  but  half  England  fiamed  into  illumina- 
tions. One  spot  alone  was  dark — Blackheath,  where,  solitary 
amid  a  rejoicing  nation,  Wolfe's  mother  mourned  for  her  heroic 
son — like  Milton's  Lycidas — "dead  ere  his  prime." 


CHAPTER    XX 
THE   BATTLE   OF   THE   NILE 

THE  GREAT  SEA  FIGHT   AT  ABOUKIR    BAY  — NELSONS  DRAMATIC 
ATTACK  — THE   DEFEAT  OF  THE    FRENCH 

A.D.   1798 

ABOUKIR  BAY  resembles  nothing  so  much  as  a  piece  bitten 
out  of  the  Egyptian  pancake.  A  crescent-shaped  bay, 
patchy  with  shoals,  stretching  from  the  Rosetta  mouth  of 
the  Nile  to  Aboukir,  or,  as  it  is  now  called,  Nelson  Island,  that 
island  being  simply  the  outer  point  of  a  sandbank  that  projects 
from  the  western  horn  of  the  bay.  Flat  shores,  gray-blue  Mediter- 
ranean waters,  two  horns  of  land  six  miles  apart,  that  to  the  north 
projecting  furthest  and  forming  a  low  island — this,  one  hundred 
years  ago,  was  the  scene  of  what  might  almost  be  described  as 
the  greatest  sea-fight  in  histor5^ 

On  the  evening  of  August  1,  1798,  thirteen  great  battleships  lay 
drawn  up  in  a  single  line  parallel  "NA^th  the  shore,  and  as  close  to  it 
as  the  sandbanks  permitted.  The  head  ship  was  almost  stem  on  to 
the  shoal  which,  running  out  at  right  angles  to  the  shore,  forms 
Aboukir  Island.  The  nose  of  each  succeeding  ship  was  exactly 
one  hundred  and  sixty  yards  from  the  stern  of  the  ship  before  it, 
and,  allowing  for  one  or  two  gaps,  each  ship  was  bound  by  a  great 
cable  to  its  neighbor.  It  was  a  thread  of  beads,  only  each  "bead" 
was  a  battleship,  whose  decks  swarmed  with  brave  men,  and  from 
whose  sides  gaped  the  iron  lips  of  more  than  a  thousand  heavy 
guns.  The  line  was  not  exactly  straight ;  it  formed  a.  very  obtuse 
angle,  the  projecting  point  at  the  center  being  formed  by  the 
"Orient,"  the  biggest  warship  at  that  moment  afloat,  a  giant  of 
one  hundred  and  twenty  guns. 
(448) 


THE    BATTLE    OF    THE    NILE  449 

Next  to  her  came  the  "Franklin,"  of  eighty  guns,  a  vessel 
which,  if  not  the  biggest,  was  perhaps  the  finest  sample  of  naval 
architecture  in  existence.  The  line  of  ships  was  more  than  one 
mile  and  a  half  long,  and  consisted  of  the  gigantic  tlagship,  three 
ships  of  the  line  of  eighty  guns,  and  nine  of  seventy-four  guns. 
In  addition,  it  had  a  fringe  of  gxmiboats  and  frigates,  while  a  bat- 
tery of  mortars  on  the  island  guarded,  as  with  a  sword  of  fire,  the 
gap  betwixt  the  headmost  ship  and  the  island.  This  great  fleet 
had  convoyed  Napoleon,  with  thirty-six  thousand  troops  crowded 
into  four  hundred  transports,  from  France,  had  captured  Malta 
on  the  vo3'age,  and  three  weeks  before  had  safely  landed  Napoleon 
and  his  soldiers  in  Egypt.  The  French  admiral,  Brue^-s,  knew 
that  Nelson  was  coming  furiously  in  his  track,  and  after  a  con- 
sultation with  all  his  captains  he  had  drawn  up  his  ships  in  the 
order  which  we  have  described,  a  position  he  believed  to  be  un- 
assailable. And  at  three  o'clock  on  the  afternoon  of  August  1, 
1798,  his  lookouts  were  eagerly  watching  the  white  topsails  show- 
ing above  the  lee  line,  the  van  of  Nelson's  fleet. 

Napoleon  had  kept  the  secret  of  his  Egyptian  expedition  well, 
and  the  great  Toulon  fleet,  with  its  swarm  of  transports,  had  van- 
ished round  the  coast  of  Corsica  and  gone  off  into  mere  space,  as 
far  as  a  bewildered  British  Admiralty  knew.  A  fleet  of  thirteen 
seventy-four-gun  ships  and  one  of  fift}"  guns  was  placed  under 
Nelson's  flag.  He  was  ordered  to  pursue  and  destroy  the  vanished 
French  fleet,  and  with  characteristic  energy  he  set  out  on  one  of 
the  most  dramatic  sea-chases  known  to  history.  With  the  instinct 
of  genius  he  guessed  that  Napoleon's  destination  was  Egypt;  but 
while  the  French  fleet  coasted  Sardinia  and  went  to  the  west  of 
Sicily,  Nelson  ran  down  the  Italian  coast  to  Naples,  called  there 
for  information,  found  none,  and,  carrying  all  sail,  swept  through 
the  Straits  of  Messina. 

On  the  night  of  June  22  the  two  fleets  actually  crossed  each 
other's  tracks.  The  French  fleet,  including  the  transports,  num- 
bered five  hundred  and  seventy-two  vessels,  and  their  lights,  it 
might  be  imagined,  would  have  hghted  up  many  leagues  of  sea. 
Yet,  through  this  forest  of  hostile  masts  the  English  fleet,  with 
keen  eyes  watching  at  every  masthead,  swept  and  saw  nothing.  * 

O— Vol.  I. 


450  GREAT   BATTLES    OF    ALL    NATIONS 

Nelson,  for  one  thing,  had  no  frigates  to  serve  as  eyes  and  ears 
for  him ;  his  fleet  in  sailor-hke  fashion  formed  a  compact  bodj^ 
three  parallel  lines  of  phantom-like  pyramids  of  canvas  sweeping 
in  the  darkness  across  the  floor  of  the  sea.  Above  all  a  haze  filled 
the  night;  and  it  is  not  too  much  to  say  that  the  drifting  gray 
vapor  which  hid  the  French  ships  from  Nelson's  lookout  men 
changed  the  face  of  history. 

Nelson  used  to  explain  that  his  ideal  of  perfect  enjoyment  would 
be  to  have  the  chance  of  "trying  Bonaparte  on  a  wind";  and  if 
he  had  caught  sound  of  bell  or  gleam  of  lantern  from  the  great 
French  fleet,  and  brought  it  to  action  in  the  darkness  of  that  foggy 
night,  can  any  one  doubt  what  the  result  would  have  been?  Nel- 
son would  have  done  off  the  coast  of  Sicily  on  June  22,  1798,  what 
WelHngton  did  on  June  18,  1815;  and  in  that  case  there  would 
have  been  no  Marengo  or  Austerlitz,  no  retreat  from  Moscow,  no 
Peninsular  war,  and  no  Waterloo.  For  so  much,  in  distracted 
human  affairs,  may  a  patch  of  drifting  vapor  count! 

Nelson,  in  a  word,  overran  his  prey.  He  reached  Alexandria 
to  find  the  coast  empty ;  doubled  back  to  Sicily,  zigzagging  on  his 
way  by  Cyprus  and  Candia ;  and  twelve  hours  after  he  had  left 
Alexandria  the  topsails  of  the  French  fleet  hove  in  sight  from  that 
port.  Napoleon's  troops  were  safely  landed,  and  the  French  ad- 
miral had  some  four  weeks  in  which  to  prepare  for  Nelson's  return, 
and  at  3  p.m.  on  August  1  the  gliding  topsails  of  the  "Swiftsure" 
above  Aboukir  Island  showed  that  the  tireless  Englishman  had, 
after  nearly  three  months  of  pursuit,  overtaken  his  enemy. 

The  French,  if  frigates  be  included,  counted  seventeen  ships  to 
fourteen,  and  ship  for  ship  they  had  the  advantage  over  the  British 
ahke  in  crew,  tonnage,  and  weight  of  fire.  In  size  the  English 
ships  scarcely  averaged  1,500  tons;  the  French  ships  exceeded 
2,000  tons.  Nelson  had  only  seventy-fours,  his  heaviest  gun  being 
a  32-pounder.  The  average  French  eighty-gun  ship  in  every  de- 
tail of  fighting  strength  exceeded  an  English  ninety-eight,  and 
Brueys  had  three  such  ships  in  his  fleet ;  while  his  own  flagship, 
the  "Orient,"  was  fully  equal  to  two  English  seventy-fours.  Its 
weight  of  ball  on  the  lower  dock  alone  exceeded  that  from  the 
whole  broadside  of  the  "Bellerophon,"  the  ship  that  engaged  it. 


THE    BATTLE    OF    THE    NILE 


451 


The  Frencli,  in  brief,  had  an  advantage  in  guns  of  about  twenty 
per  cent,  and  in  men  of  over  thirty  per  cent.  Bnieys,  moreover, 
was  lying  in  a  carefully  chosen  position  in  a  dangerous  bay,  of 
which  his  enemies  posseSoed  no  chart,  and  the  head  of  his  line  was 
protected  by  a  powerful  shore  battery. 


NELSON 
After  the  portrait  by  Hoppnkr  in  the  possession  of  the  Queen, 

Nothing  in  this  great  fight  is  more  dramatic  than  the  swiftness 
and  vehemence  of  Nelson's  attack.  He  simply  leaped  upon  his 
enemj'  at  sight.  Four  of  his  ships  were  miles  off  in  the  offing,  but 
Nelson  did  not  wait  for  them.  In  the  long  pursuit  he  had  assem- 
bled his  captains  repeatedly  in  his  cabin,  and  discussed  every  pos- 


452  GREAT    BATTLES    OF    ALL    NATIONS 

sible  manner  of  attacking  the  Fre'-'cb  fleet.  If  he  found  the  fleet 
as  he  guessed,  drawn  up  in  battle-hne  close  inshore  and  anchored, 
his  plan  was  to  place  one  of  his  ships  on  the  bows,  another  on  the 
quarter,  of  each  French  ship  in  succession. 

It  has  been  debated  who  actually  evolved  the  idea  of  rounding 
the  head  of  the  French  line  and  attacking  on  both  faces.  One 
version  is  that  Foley,  in  the  "Goliath,"  who  led  the  British  line, 
owed  the  suggestion  to  a  keen-eyed  middy  who  ["pointed  out  that 
the  anchor  buoy  of  the  headmost  French  ship  was  at  such  a  dis- 
tance from  the  ship  itself  as  to  prove  there  was  room  to  pass.  But 
the  weight  of  evidence  seems  to  prove  that  Nelson  himself,  as  he 
■rounded  Aboukir  Island,  and  scanned  with  fierce  and  questioning 
vision  Brueys'  formation,  with  that  swiftness  of  glance  in  which 
he  almost  rivaled  Napoleon,  saw  his  chance  in  the  gap  between  the 
leading  French  ship  and  the  shore.  "Where  a  French  ship  can 
swing,"  he  held,  "an  English  ship  can  either  sail  or  anchor." 
And  he  determined  to  double  on  the  French  line  and  attack  on 
both  faces  at  once.  He  explained  his  plan  to  Berry,  his  captain, 
who  in  his  delight  exclaimed,  "If  we  succeed,  what  will  the  world 
say?"  "There  is  no  'if  in  the  case,"  said  Nelson;  "that  we  shall 
succeed  is  certain ;  who  will  live  to  tell  the  story  is  a  very  different 
question." 

Brueys  had  calculated  that  the  English  fleet  must  come  down 
perpendicularl}''  to  his  center,  and  each  ship  in  the  process  be  raked 
by  a  Hne  of  fire  a  mile  and  a  half  long ;  but  the  moment  the  En- 
glish ships  rounded  the  island  they  tacked,  hugged  the  shore,  and 
swept  through  the  gap  between  the  leading  vessel  and  the  land. 
The  British  ships  were  so  close  to  each  other  that  Nelson,  speaking 
from  his  own  quarter-deck,  was  able  to  ask  Hood  in  the  "Zealous" 
if  he  thought  they  had  water  enough  to  round  the  French  line. 
Hood  repHed  that  he  had  no  chart,  but  would  lead  and  take  sound- 
ings as  he  went. 

So  the  British  hne  came  on,  the  men  on  the  yards  taking  in  can- 
vas, the  leadsmen  in  the  chains  coolly  calling  the  soundings.  The 
battery  roared  from  the  island,  the  leading  French  ships  broke  into 
smoke  and  flame,  but  the  steady  British  line  glided  on.  The  "Go- 
liath" by  this  time  led;  and  at  half-past  five  the  shadow  of  its  tall 


THE    BATTLE    OF    THE    NILE  453 

masts  cast  by  the  westering  sun  fell  ov«r  the  decks  of  the  "Guer- 
rier,"  and  as  Foley,  its  captain,  swept  past  the  Frenchman's  bows, 
he  poured  in  a  furious  broadside,  bore  swiftly  up,  and  dropped — as 
Nelson,  with  that  minute  attention  to  detail  which  marks  a  great 
commander,  had  ordered  all  his  captains — an  anchor  from  the 
stern,  so  that,  without  having  to  "swing,"  he  was  instantly  in  a 
fighting  position  on  his  enemy's  quarter.  Foley,  however,  dropped 
his  anchor  a  moment  too  late,  and  drifted  on  to  the  second  ship  in 
the  line;  but  Hood,  in  the  "Zealous,"  coming  swiftly  after,  also 
raked  the  "Guerrier,"  and,  anchoring  from  the  stern  at  the  exact 
moment,  took  the  place  on  its  quarter  Foley  should  have  taken. 

The  "Orion"  came  into  battle  next,  blasted  the  unfortunate 
"Guerrier,"  whose  foremast  had  already  gone,  with  a  third  broad- 
side, and  swept  outside  the  "Zealous"  and  "Goliath"  down  to  the 
third  ship  on  the  French  line.  A  French  frigate,  the  "Serieuse," 
of  thirty-six  guns,  anchored  inside  the  French  line,  ventured  to 
fire  on  the  "Orion"  as  it  swept  past,  whereupon  Saumarez,  its 
commander,  discharged  his  starboard  broadside  into  that  frigate. 
The  "Serieuse"  reeled  under  the  shock  of  the  British  guns,  its 
masts  disappeared  like  chips,  and  the  unfortunate  Frenchman  went 
down  like  a  stone ;  while  Saumarez,  laying  himself  on  the  larboard 
bow  of  the  "Franklin"  and  the  quarter  of  the  "Peuple  Sovrain," 
broke  upon  them  in  thunder.  The  "Theseus"  followed  hard  in 
the  track  of  the  "Orion,"  raked  the  unhappy  "Guerrier"  in  the 
familiar  fashion  while  crossing  its  bows,  then  swept  through  the 
narrow  water-lane  betwixt  the  "Goliath"  and  "Zealous"  and  their 
French  antagonists,  poured  a  smashing  broadside  into  each  French 
ship  as  it  passed,  then  shot  outside  the  "Orion,"  and  anchored 
with  mathematical  nicety  off  the  quarter  of  the  "Spartiate."  The 
water-lane  was  not  a  pistol-shot  wide,  and  this  feat  of  seamanship 
was  marvelous. 

Miller,  who  commanded  the  "Theseus,"  in  a  letter  to  his  Avife 
described  the  fight.  "In  running  along  the  enemy's  line  in  the 
wake  of  the  'Zealous'  and  'Goliath,'  I  observed,"  he  says,  "their 
shot  sweep  just  over  us,  and  knowing  well  that  at  such  a  moment 
Frenchmen  would  not  have  coolness  enough  to  change  their  eleva- 
tion, I  closed  them  suddenly,  and,  running  under  the  arch  of  their 


454  GREAT   BATTLES    OF    ALL    NATIONS 

shot,  reserved  my  fire,  every  gun  being  loaded  with  two,  and  some 
with  three  round  shot,  until  I  had  the  'Guerrier's'  masts  in  a  line, 
and  her  jibboom  about  six  feet  clear  of  our  rigging.  We  then 
opened  with  such  effect  that  a  second  breath  could  not  be  drawn 
before  her  main  and  mizzenmast  were  also  gone.  This  was  pre- 
cisely at  sunset,  or  forty-four  minutes  past  six. ' ' 

The  "Audacious,"  meanwhile,  was  too  impatient  to  tack  round 
the  head  of  the  French  line ;  it  broke  through  the  gap  betwixt  the 
first  and  second  ships  of  the  enemy,  dehvered  itself,  in  a  comfort- 
able manner,  of  a  raking  broadside  into  both  as  it  passed,  took  its 
position  on  the  larboard  bow  of  the  "Conquerant,"  and  gave  itself 
up  to  the  joy  of  battle.  Within  thirty  minutes  from  the  beginning 
of  the  fight,  that  is,  five  British  line-of -battle  ships  were  inside  the 
French  line,  comfortably  established  on  the  bows  or  quarters  of 
the  leading  ships.  Nelson  himself,  in  the  "Vanguard,"  anchored 
on  the  outside  of  the  French  fine,  within  eighty  yards  of  the 
' '  Spartiate's' '  starboard  beam ;  the ' '  Minotaur, ' '  the  * '  Bellerophon, ' ' 
and  the  "Majestic,"  coming  up  in  swift  succession,  and  at  less 
than  five  minutes'  interval  from  each  other,  flung  themselves  on 
the  next  ships. 

How  the  thunder  of  the  battle  deepened,  and  how  the  quick 
flashes  of  the  guns  grew  brighter  as  the  night  gathered  rapidly 
over  sea,  must  be  imagined.  But  Nelson's  swift  and  brilliant 
strategy  was  triumphant.  Each  ship  in  the  French  van  resem- 
bled nothing  so  much  as  a  walnut  in  the  jaws  of  a  nut-cracker. 
They  were  being  "cracked"  in  succession,  and  the  rear  of  the  line 
could  only  look  on  with  agitated  feelings  and  watch  the  operation. 

The  fire  of  the  British  ships  for  fury  and  precision  was  over- 
whelming. The  head  of  the  "Guerrier"  was  simply  shot  away; 
the  anchors  hanging  from  her  bows  were  cut  in  two ;  her  main- 
deck  ports,  from  the  bowsprit  to  the  gangway,  were  driven  into 
one ;  her  masts,  fallen  inboard,  lay  with  their  tangle  of  rigging 
on  the  unhappy  crew ;  while  some  of  her  main-deck  beams — all 
supports  being  town  away — fell  on  the  guns.  Hood,  in  the  "Zeal- 
ous," who  was  pounding  the  unfortunate  "Guerrier,"  says,  "At 
last,  being  tired  of  killing  men  in  that  way,  I  sent  a  lieutenant  on 
board,  who  was  allowed,  as  I  had  instructed  him,  to  hoist  a  light, 


THE   BATTLE    OF    THE    NILE 


455 


and  haul  it  down  as  a  sign  of  submission,"  But  all  the  damage 
was  not  on  the  side  of  the  French.  The  great  French  flagship, 
the  '* Orient,"  by  this  time  had  added  her  mighty  voice  to  the 
tumult,  and  the  "Bellerophon,"  who  was  engaged  with  her,  had 


WELLINGTON 

After  a  painting  by  John  Simpson 

a  bad  time  of  it.  It  was  the  story  of  Tom  Sayers  and  Heenan 
over  again— a  dwarf  fighting  a  giant.  Her  mizzenmast  and  main- 
mast were  shot  away,  and  after  maintaining  the  dreadful  duel  for 
more  than  an  hour,  and  having  two  hundred  of  her  crew  struck 
down,  at  8.20  p.m.  the  "Bellerophon"  cut  her  cable  and  drifted,  a 
disabled  wreck,  out  of  the  fire. 


456  GREAT    BATTLES    OF    ALL    NATIONS 

Meanwhile  the  four  ships  Nelson  had  left  in  the  offing  were 
beating  furiously  up  to  add  themselves  to  the  fight.  Night  had 
fallen  by  the  time  Troubridge,  in  the  "CuUoden,"  came  round  the 
island;  and  then,  in  full  sight  of  the  great  battle,  the  "Culloden" 
ran  hopelessly  ashore !  She  was,  perhaps,  the  finest  ship  of  the 
British  fleet,  and  the  emotions  of  its  crew  and  commander  as  they 
listened  to  the  tumult,  and  watched  through  the  darkness  the  dart- 
ing fires  of  the  Titanic  combat  they  could  not  share,  may  be  imag- 
ined. The  British  army,  according  to  well-known  authorities, "swore 
terribly  in  Flanders."  The  expletives  discharged  that  night  along 
the  decks  and  in  the  forecastle  of  the  "Culloden"  would  probably 
have  made  even  a  Flanders  veteran  open  his  eyes  in  astonishment. 

The  "Swiftsure"  and  the  "Alexander,"  taking  warning  by  the 
"Culloden's"  fate,  swept  round  her  and  bore  safely  up  to  the  fight. 
The  "Swiftsure,"  bearing  down  through  the  darkness  to  the  com- 
bat, came  across  a  vessel  drifting,  dismasted  and  lightless,  a  mere 
wreck.  HoUiwell,  the  captain  of  the  "Swiftsure,"  was  about  to 
fire,  thinking  it  was  an  enemy,  but  on  second  thoughts  hailed 
instead,  and  got  for  an  answer  the  words,  "  'Bellerophon';  going 
out  of  action,  disabled."  The  "Swiftsure"  passed  on,  and  five 
minutes  after  the  "Bellerophon"  had  drifted  from  the  bows  of 
the  "Orient,"  the  "Swiftsure,"  coming  mysteriously  up  out  of  the 
darkness,  took  her  place,  and  broke  into  a  tempest  of  fire. 

At  nine  o'clock  the  great  French  flagship  burst  into  flame. 
The  painters  had  been  at  work  upon  her  on  the  morning  of  that 
day,  and  had  left  oil  and  combustibles  about.  The  nearest  En- 
glish ships  concentrated  their  fire,  both  of  musketry  and  of  cannon, 
on  the  burning  patch,  and  made  the  task  of  extinguishing  it  hope- 
less. Brueys,  the  French  admiral,  had  already  been  cut  in  two 
by  a  cannon  shot,  and  Casablanca,  his  commodore,  was  wounded. 
The  fire  spread,  the  flames  leaped  up  the  masts  and  crept  athwart 
the  decks  of  the  great  ship.  The  moon  had  just  risen,  and  the 
whole  scene  was  perhaps  the  strangest  ever  witnessed — the  great 
burning  ship,  the  white  light  of  the  moon  above,  the  darting  points 
of  red  flame  from  the  iron  lips  of  hundreds  of  guns  below,  the 
drifting  battle-smoke,  the  cries  of  ten  thousand  combatants — all 
crowded  into  an  area  of  a  few  hundred  square  yards! 


THE    BATTLE    OF    THE    NILE 


457 


The  British  ships,  hanging  hke  hgunds  on  the  flanks  of  the 
"Orient,"  knew  that  the  explosion  might  come  at  any  moment, 
and  they  made  every  preparation  for  it,  closing  their  hatchways 
and  gathering  their  firemen  at  quarters.  But  they  would  not 
withdraw  their  ships  a  single  yard!  At  ten  o'clock  the  great 
French  ship  blew  up  with  a  flame  that  for  a  moment  lighted  shore 
and  sea,  and  a  sound  that  hushed  into  stillness  the  whole  tumult 
of  the  battle.  Out  of  a  crew  of  over  a  thousand  men  only  seventy 
were  saved !     For  ten  minutes  after  that  dreadful  sight  the  war- 


Cgllodefti      % 

^6     lil 


JO 

Nelson's  Isj 
s 


\.o 

Aboukir  Castle^       \    J 


Lake  Sedd 


THE   BATTLE   OF   THE   NILE 
Doubling  on  the  French  Line 


ring  fleets  seemed  stupefied.  Not  a  shout  was  heard,  not  a  shot 
fired.  Then  the  French  ship  next  the  missing  flagship  broke  into 
wrathful  fire,  and  the  battle  awoke  in  full  passion  once  more. 

The  fighting  raged  with  partial  intermissions  all  through  the 
night,  and  when  morning  broke  Brueys'  curved  line  of  mighty 
battleships,  a  mile  and  a  half  long,  had  vanished.  Of  the  French 
ships,  one  had  been  blown  up,  one  was  sunk,  one  was  ashore,  four 
had  fled,  the  rest  were  prizes.  It  was  the  most  complete  and  dra- 
matic victory  in  naval  history.     The  French  fought  on  the  whole 


458  GREAT   BATTLES    OF    ALL    NATIONS 

with  magnificent  courage ;  hut,  though  stronger  in  the  mass,  Nel- 
son's strategy  and  the  seamanship  of  his  captains  made  the  British 
stronger  at  every  point  of  actual  battle.  The  rear  of  the  French 
line  did  not  fire  a  shot  or  lose  a  man.  The  wonder  is  that  when 
Nelson's  strategy  was  developed,  and  its  fatal  character  under- 
stood, Villeneuve,  who  commanded  the  French  rear,  and  was  a 
man  of  undoubted  courage,  did  not  cut  his  cables,  make  sail,  and 
come  to  the  help  of  his  comrades.  A  few  hundred  yards  would 
have  carried  him  to  the  heart  of  the  fight.  Can  any  one  doubt 
whether,  if  the  positions  had  been  reversed.  Nelson  would  have 
watched  the  destruction  of  half  his  fleet  as  a  mere  spectator?  If 
nothing  better  had  offered,  he  would  have  pulled  in  a  wash-tub 
into  the  fight! 

Villeneuve  afterward  offered  three  explanations  of  his  own 
inertness:  first,  he  "could  not  spare  any  of  his  anchors";  second, 
"he  had  no  instructions!"  third,  "onboard  the  ships  in  the  rear 
the  idea  of  weighing  and  going  to  the  help  of  the  ships  engaged 
occurred  to  no  one!"  In  justice  to  the  French,  however,  it  may 
be  admitted  that  nothing  could  surpass  the  fierceness  and  valor 
vnth.  which,  say,  the  "Tonnant"  was  fought.  Its  captain,  Du 
Petit-Thouars,  fought  his  ship  magnificently,  had  first  both  his 
arms  and  then  one  of  his  legs  shot  away,  and  died  entreating  his 
officers  not  to  strike.  Of  the  ten  French  ships  engaged,  the  cap- 
tains of  eight  were  killed  or  wounded.  Nelson  took  the  seven 
wounded  captains  on  board  the  "Vanguard,"  and,  as  they  recov- 
ered, they  dined  regularly  with  him.  One  of  the  captains  had  lost 
his  nose,  another  an  eye,  another  most  of  his  teeth,  "with  musket- 
shots,  etc.  Nelson,  who  himself  had  been  wounded,  and  was  still 
half-blind  as  a  result,  at  one  of  his  dinners  offered  by  mischance  a 
case  of  toothpicks  to  the  captain  on  his  left,  who  had  lost  all  his 
teeth.  He  discovered  his  error,  and  in  his  confusion  handed  his 
snuff-box  to  the  captain  on  his  right,  who  had  lost  his  nose ! 

What  was  the  secret  of  the  British  victory?  Nelson's  brilliant 
strategy  was  only  possible  by  virtue  of  the  magnificent  seamanship 
of  his  captains,  and  the  new  fashion  of  close  and  desperate  fight- 
ing, which  Hood  and  Jarvis  and  Nelson  himself  had  created.  It 
is  a  French  writer,  Captain  Graviere,  who  says  that  the  French 


THE  BATTLE  OF  MARENGO  459 

naval  habit  of  evading  battle  where  they  could,  and  of  accepting 
action  from  an  enemy  rather  than  forcing  it  upon  him,  had  ruined 
the  morale  of  the  French  navy.  The  long  blockades  had  made 
Nelson's  captains  perfect  seamen,  and  he  taught  them  that  close 
fighting  at  pistol-shot  distance  was  the  secret  of  victory.  "No 
Enghsh  captain,"  he  said,  "can  do  wrong  who,  in  fight,  lays  a 
ship  alongside  an  enemy."  It  was  a  captain  of  Nelson's  school — 
a  Scotchman — who  at  Camperdown,  unable,  just  as  the  action 
began,  to  read  some  complicated  signal  from  his  chief,  flung  his 

signal-book  on  the  deck,  and  in  broad  Scotch  exclaimed,  "D 

me!  up  with  the  hellem  an'  gang  in  the  middle  o't."  That  trick 
of  "ganging  into  the  middle  o't"  was  irresistible. 

The  battle  of  the  Nile  destroyed  the  naval  prestige  of  France, 
made  England  supreme  in  the  Mediterranean,  saved  India,  left 
Napoleon  and  his  army  practically  prisoners  in  Egypt,  and  united 
Austria,  Russia,  and  Turkey  in  league  against  France.  The  night 
battle  in  Aboukir  Bay,  in  a  word,  changed  the  face  of  history. 


CHAPTER 'XXI 
THE   BATTLE   OF   MARENGO 

STRUGGLE   WITH  THE  AUSTRIANS,  IN  WHICH  THE    FIRST   CONSUL 
STAKED  ALL  AND  WON  — CHARGE  AND  DEATH  OF  DESAIX 

A.  D.    1800 

PRIOR  to  the  battle  of  Aboukir,  Bonaparte  had  intended 
making  Egypt  a  starting  point  for  the  conquest  of  India. 
Foiled  in  that  dream,  he  then  conceived  the  design  of  the 
conquest  of  Syria.  But  Acre,  the  key  of  Syria,  was  stubbornly 
held  by  the  Turks,  the  French  battering  train  was  captured  at 
sea  by  an  English  captain.  Sir  Sydney  Smith,  whose  seamen  aided 
in  the  defense  of  the  place,  and  the  besiegers  were  forced  to  fall 
back  upon  Egj-pt.     The  French  general,  despairing  of  success,  left 


46o  GREAT    BATTLES    OF    ALL    NATIONS 

his  army  and  returned  to  France.  His  arrival  in  Paris  was  soon 
followed  by  the  overthrow  of  the  Directors.  Three  consuls  took 
their  place;  but  under  the  name  of  First  Consul,  Bonaparte  be- 
came in  effect  sole  ruler  of  the  country.  His  energy  at  once 
changed  the  whole  face  of  European  affairs.  At  Marengo  in  1800 
he  forced  the  Austrians  to  surrender  Lombardy,  and  a  few  months 
later  crushed  their  army  on  the  Iser,  in  the  victory  of  Hohen- 
linden. 

The  battle  of  Marengo,  one  of  the  most  resonant  in  history,  has 
been  often  described.  According  to  Thiers,  whose  recital  of  it  in 
his  "History  of  the  Consulate  and  Empire,"  is  appended,  Bona- 
parte, after  crossing  the  Saint  Bernard,  had  a  triple  difficulty  to 
solve :  to  close  one  route,  to  occupy  another,  and  to  retain  a  third. 
In  poring  over  the  map  of  Italy,  in  order  to  find  a  post  which  ful- 
filled these  three  conditions,  he  made  a  choice  worthy  of  being 
forever  admired. 


If  [says  Thiers]  we  examine  the  chain  of  the  Apennines 
we  shall  see  that,  in  consequence  of  the  curve  which  it  forms  to 
embrace  the  Gulf  of  Genoa,  it  runs  northward,  and  throws  out 
branches  which  approach  very  closely  to  the  Po,  from  the  position 
of  La  Stradella  to  the  environs  of  Piacenza.  In  all  this  part  of 
Piedmont  and  the  duchy  of  Parma,  the  foot  of  the  heights  ad- 
vances so  near  to  the  river  as  to  leave  but  a  very  narrow  space  for 
the  highroad  to  Piacenza.  An  army  posted  in  advance  of  La 
Stradella,  at  the  entrance  of  a  sort  of  defile  several  leagues  in 
length,  its  left  upon  the  heights,  its  center  upon  the  road,  its  right 
along  the  Po  and  the  marshy  grounds  that  border  it,  is  difficult  to 
dislodge.  It  must  be  added  that  the  route  is  studded  with  hamlets 
and  villages,  built  of  stone,  and  very  capable  of  resisting  cannon. 
Against  the  imperial  army,  which  was  strong  in  cavalry  and  artil- 
lery, this  position,  therefore,  independently  of  its  natural  advan- 
tages, possessed  the  property  of  annulling  those  tw^o  arms. 

It  had,  moreover,  other  most  peculiar  advantages.  It  is  very 
near  this  position  that  the  tributary  streams  on  the  other  side  of 
the  Po,  most  important  to  occupy,  such  as  the  Tessino  and  the 
Adda,  effect  their  junction.     Thus  the  Tessino  falls  into  the  Po, 


THE    BATTLE    OF    MARENGO  461 

a  little  below  Pa  via  and  above  Belgiojoso,  nearly  opposite  to  La 
Stradella,  at  the  distance  of  two  leagues  at  most.  The  Adda, 
running  beyond  and  for  a  greater  distance  before  it  unites  with 
the  Po,  discharges  itself  into  that  river  between  Piacenza  and 
Cremona.  The  reader  will  at  once  comprehend  that,  placed  at 
La  Stradella,  and  master  of  the  bridges  of  Belgiojoso,  of  Piacenza, 
and  of  Cremona,  General  Bonaparte  would  be  in  possession  of  the 
most  decisive  points;  for  he  would  bar  the  principal  road,  that 
from  Alexandria  to  Piacenza,  and  he  would  have  it  in  his  power, 
at  the  same  time,  by  a  long  march,  to  hasten  to  the  Tessino,  or  to 
redescend  the  Po  to  Cremona,  and  to  fly  toward  the  Adda,  which 
covered  his  rear  against  the  corps  of  Wukassowich. 

Such  was  the  distribution  of  the  fifty  odd  thousand  soldiers 
whom  General  Bonaparte  had  at  his  disposal  at  the  moment; 
thirty-two  thousand  were  at  the  central  point  of  La  Stradella, 
from  nine  thousand  to  ten  thousand  on  the  Tessino,  three  thousand 
or  four  thousand  at  Milan  and  Arona,  lastly,  from  ten  thousand 
to  eleven  thousand  on  the  lower  course  of  the  Po  and  of  the  Adda, 
all  placed  in  such  a  manner  as  to  support  one  another  reciprocally 
with  extreme  promptness.  In  fact,  on  receiving  notice  from  the 
Tessino,  General  Bonaparte  could  in  a  day  fly  to  the  succor  of  the 
ten  thousand  French  who  guarded  it.  On  notice  from  the  Lower 
Po,  he  could,  in  the  same  space  of  time,  descend  upon  Piacenza 
and  Cremona,  while  General  Loison,  defending  the  passage  of  the 
river,  would  give  him  time  to  hasten  up.  All  and  each  of  them, 
on  their  part,  could  march  upon  La  Stradella  and  re-enforce 
General  Bonaparte  in  as  short  a  time  as  it  would  take  him  to 
reach  them. 

The  battle  of  Montebello — which  gave  to  Lannes  and  his  family 
the  title  that  distinguishes  it  among  the  French  families  of  the 
present  time,  a  glorious  title,  which  his  descendants  ought  to  be 
proud  to  bear! — had  been  fought. 

This  first  rencontre  was  a  promising  beginning,  but  it  intimated 
to  M.  de  Melas  the  difficulty  he  would  have  in  forcing  his  way. 
General  Ott,  with  a  force  diminished  by  seven  thousand  men,  re- 
tired in  consternation  upon  Alexandria.  The  courage  of  the  French 
army  was  raised  to  the  highest  degree  of  hardihood. 


462  GREAT    BATTLES    OF   ALL   NATIONS 

The  First  Consul  lost  no  time  in  collecting  his  divisions,  and  in 
strongly  occupying,  that  road  from  Alexandria  to  Piacenza,  which, 
in  all  probability,  M.  de  Melas  would  follow.  Lannes  having  ad- 
vanced too  far,  the  First  Consul  fell  back  a  little  to  the  very  point 
which  is  called  La  Stradella,  because  the  defile,  narrowed  in  this 
place  by  the  approximation  of  the  heights  and  the  river,  renders 
the  position  more  secure. 

The  10th  and  11th  of  June  were  passed  in  observing  the  move- 
ments of  the  Austrians,  in  concentrating  the  army,  in  giving  it  a 
little  rest  after  its  rapid  marches,  in  organizing  the  artillery  in  the 
best  possible  manner ;  for,  till  now,  not  more  than  forty  field-pieces 
could  be  brought  together  at  this  point. 

On  the  11th,  one  of  the  most  distinguished  generals  of  that 
period,  Desaix,  who,  perhaps,  equaled  Moreau,  Massena,  Kleber, 
Lannes,  in  military  talents,  but  who  surpassed  them  all  in  the  rare 
perfections  of  his  character,  arrived  at  headquarters.  He  had  just 
returned  from  Egypt,  where  Kleber  had  committed  political  faults, 
which  we  shall  soon  have  the  chagrin  to  record,  which  Desaix 
strove  in  vain  to  prevent,  and,  to  escape  the  painful  sight  of  which, 
he  had  fled  to  Europe.  These  faults,  however,  had  afterward  been 
gloriously  retrieved.  Desaix,  stopped  near  the  coast  of  France, 
had  been  treated  by  the  English  in  the  most  shameful  manner. 
He  loved  the  First  Consul  with  a  sort  of  passion;  and  the  First 
Consul,  touched  by  the  affection  of  such  a  noble  heart,  requited  it 
by  the  warmest  friendship  that  he  ever  felt  in  his  life.  They 
passed  a  whole  night  together,  in  relating  to  each  other  what  had 
happened  in  Egypt  and  in  France,  and  the  First  Consul  imme- 
diately gave  him  the  command  of  Monnier's  and  Boudet's  united 
divisions. 

On  the  following  day,  June  12th,  General  Bonaparte,  surprised 
at  seeing  nothing  of  the  Austrians,  could  not  help  feeling  some 
apprehensions.  Astonished  that,  in  such  a  situation,  M.  de  Melas 
should  hesitate,  lose  time,  and  suffer  all  the  outlets  to  be  closed 
around  him,  measuring  his  adversary  too  closely  by  his  own  stand- 
ard, he  said  that  M.  de  Melas  could  not  have  wasted  such  precious 
hours,  and  that  he  must  have  escaped,  either  by  ascending  toward 
Genoa,  or  by  crossing  the  Upper  Po,  with  the  intention  of  forcing 


THb    BATTLE    OF    MARENGO  ^^3 

the  Tessino.  Tired  of  waiting,  he  left,  iu  the  afternoon  of  the 
12th,  his  position  of  La  Stradella,  and  advanced,  followed  by  the 
whole  army,  to  the  height  of  Tortona.  He  gave  orders  for 
the  blockade  of  that  fortress,  and  established  his  headquarters  at 
Voghera.  On  the  morning  of  the  13th,  he  crossed  the  Scrivia, 
and  debouched  in  the  immense  plain  extending  between  the  Scrivia 
and  the  Bormida,  which,  at  the  present  day,  has  no  other  name 
but  the  plain  of  Marengo.  It  was  the  very  same  which,  several 
months  before,  his  imagination  marked  out  for  the  theater  of  a 
great  battle  with  M.  de  Melas.  At  this  place,  the  Po  flows  at 
a  distance  from  the  Apennines.  The  intervening  country  is  inter- 
sected by  the  Bormida  and  the  Tanaro,  whose  currents  have  be- 
come less  rapid,  and  uniting  near  Alexandria,  afterward  discharge 
themselves  into  the  bed  of  the  Po.  The  road  skirting  the  foot  of 
the  Apennines  to  Tortona  separates  from  it  opposite  to  that  place, 
turns  off  to  the  right,  passes  the  Scrivia,  and  debouches  in  a  vast 
plain.  It  runs  across  it  to  a  first  village  called  San  Giuliano,  pro- 
ceeds to  a  second  called  Marengo,  at  length  crosses  the  Bormida, 
and  leads  to  the  celebrated  fortress  of  Alexandria.  ' '  If  the  enemy 
meant  to  follow  the  highroad  from  Piacenza  to  Mantua,  it  is  here 
that  he  would  wait  for  me,"  said  General  Bonaparte  to  himself; 
"here  his  numerous  artillery,  his  fine  cavalry,  would  have  great 
advantages,  and  he  would  fight  with  all  his  united  means."  Hav- 
ing made  this  reflection,  General  Bonaparte,  in  order  to  confirm 
himself  in  his  conjectures,  ordered  the  country  to  be  scoured  by 
light  cavalry,  which  did  not  fall  in  with  a  single  Austrian  outpost. 
Toward  evening,  he  sent  forward  General  Victor's  corps,  composed 
of  Gardanne's  and  Chambarlhac's  divisions,  to  Marengo.  At  this 
point  we  encountered  a  detachment,  that  of  Oreilly,  which  defended 
for  a  moment  the  village  of  Marengo,  then  abandoned  it,  and  re- 
crossed  the  Bormida.  A  reconnaissance,  not  made  with  due  care, 
even  afforded  room  to  suppose  that  the  enemy  had  no  bridge  upon 
the  Bormida. 

From  aU  these  signs.  General  Bonaparte  ceased  to  doubt  that 
M.  de  Melas  had,  as  he  expressed  it,  given  him  the  slip.  He  would 
not  have  abandoned  the  plain,  and  particularly  the  village  of  Ma- 
rengo, which  forms  the  entrance  to  it,  if  he  had  meant  to  cross  it, 


464  GREAT    BATTLhS    OF    ALL    NATIONS 

to  fight  a  battle,  and  to  conquer  the  route  from  Alexandria  to 
Piacenza.  Misled  by  this  most  just  reflection,  General  Bonaparte 
left  General  Victor,  with  his  two  divisions,  at  Marengo ; .  he  placed 
Lannes  en  echelon  in  the  plain  with  Watrin's  division,  and  gal- 
loped off  for  his  headquarters  at  Voghera,  to  get  intelligence  from 
General  Moncey,  stationed  on  the  Tessino,  from  General  Duhesme, 
stationed  on  the  Lower  Po,  and  thus  ascertain  what  had  become 
of  M.  de  Melas.  Officers  of  the  staff,  starting  from  all  points,  were 
directed  to  meet  him  at  his  headquarters.  But  the  Scrivia  was 
overflowed,  and  very  fortunately  he  was  obliged  to  stop  at  Torre 
di  Garofalo.  Accounts  from  the  Tessino  and  the  Po,  dated  that 
very  day,  intimated  that  all  was  perfectly  quiet.  M.  de  Melas 
had  attempted  nothing  in  that  quarter.  What  could  have  become 
of  him?  .  .  .  General  Bonaparte  conceived  that  he  had  marched 
back  upon  Genoa,  by  Novi,  with  the  intention  of  passing  into  the 
valley  of  the  Trebbia,  and  again  falling  upon  Cremona.  It  seemed, 
in  fact,  that,  as  he  was  not  at  Alexandria,  as  he  was  not  on  march 
for  the  Tessino,  he  could  not  have  taken  any  other  course.  It 
might  also  be  conjectured  that,  following  the  example  of  Wurmser 
at  Mantua,  he  had  gone  and  shut  himself  up  in  Genoa,  where, 
supplied  by  the  English,  having  a  garrison  o*f  fifty  thousand  men, 
he  would  have  the  means  of  protracting  the  war.  These  ideas  had 
taken  such  strong  hold  of  the  mind  of  the  First  Consul  that  he 
directed  Desaix  to  march  upon  Rivalta  and  Novi  with  Boudet's 
single  division.  It  was,  in  fact,  through  Novi  that  M.  de  Melas 
would  have  to  pass,  in  going  from  Alexandria  to  Genoa. 

However,  from  a  lucky  presentiment,  he  kept  Monnier's  divis- 
ion, and  the  second  of  Desaix's  divisions,  at  headquarters,  and  he 
provided  as  far  as  possible  for  all  contingencies,  by  leaving  Victor 
at  Marengo  with  two  divisions,  Lannes  with  one  in  the  plain,  Murat 
at  his  sides  with  all  the  cavalry.  If  we  consider  the  general  dis- 
tribution of  the  French  forces  at  this  moment,  spread  partly  on 
the  Tessino,  partly  on  the  Lower  Po  and  the  Adda,  partly  on  the 
route  to  Genoa,  we  shall  be  struck  with  their  dispersion.  This 
was  the  necessary  consequence  of  the  general  situation  and  of  the 
circumstances  of  the  day. 

The  night  of  the  13th,  which  preceded  one  of  the  most  glorious 


THE  BATTLE  OF  MARENGO  465 

lays  in  history,  General  Bonaparte  passed  at  the  village  of  Tone 
di  Garofalo,  and  fell  asleep,  expecting  to  receive  tidings  on  the 
morrow. 

Meanwhile,  confusion  reigned  in  Alexandria.  The  Austrian 
army  was  in  despair.  A  council  of  war  had  just  been  held,  and 
none  of  the  resolutions  which  the  French  general  was  afraid  of 
had  been  adopted.  There  had  indeed  been  some  talk  of  retiring 
by  the  Upper  Po  and  the  Tessino,  or  shutting  themselves  up  in 
Genoa,  but  the  Austrian  generals,  like  brave  men,  as  they  were, 
had  preferred  following  the  suggestions  of  honor.  After  all,  said 
they,  we  have  been  fighting  for  these  eighteen  months,  like  good 
soldiers;  we  had  reconquered  Italy;  we  were  in  march  for  the 
frontiers  of  France ;  our  government  urged  us  forward ;  it  was  but 
yesterday  that  it  gave  such  orders :  it  behooved  it  to  apprise  us 
of  the  danger  which  threatened  our  rear.  If  any  blame  attaches 
to  our  situation,  to  the  government  that  blame  belongs.  All  the 
means  proposed  for  avoiding  an  engagement  with  the  French  army 
are  complicated,  difficult,  hazardous;  there  is  but  one  simple  and 
honorable  course,  it  is  to  break  through.  To-morrow  we  must 
open  a  way  for  ourselves  at  the  price  of  our  blood.  If  we  succeed, 
we  will  regain,  after  a  victory,  the  road  to  Piacenza  and  Mantua; 
if  not,  after  we  have  done  our  duty,  the  responsibility  for  our  dis- 
aster will  fall  upon  others,  not  upon  ourselves. 

The  First  Consul  could  not  comprehend  how  so  much  time  could 
be  thrown  away  in  deliberating  in  such  an  emergency.  But  there 
was  none  who  equaled  the  promptness  of  his  determinations,  and 
M.  de  Melas  was  in  a  position  sufficientl}^  desperate  to  cause  the 
cruel  perplexities  which  delayed  his  definitive  resolution  to  be  for- 
given. In  deciding  to  give  battle,  the  Austrian  general  behaved 
like  a  soldier  full  of  honor ;  but  he  might  be  reproached  for  having 
left  twenty-five  thousand  men  in  the  fortresses  of  Coni,  Turin, 
Tortona,  Genoa,  Acqui,  Gavi,  and  Alexandria,  especially  after  the 
loss  which  Ott  had  sustained  at  Montebello.  With  twenty-five 
thousand  men  in  the  fortresses,  three  thousand  in  Tuscany,  twelve 
thousand  between  Mantua  and  Venice,  he  had  left  forty  thousand 
men  at  most  to  bring  upon  the  field  of  battle,  where  the  issue  of 
the  war  was  to  be  decided.     To  this  number  had  dwindled  that 


466  GREAT    BATTLES    OF    ALL    NATIONS 

fine  army,  one  hundred  and  twenty  thousand  strong,  which,  at 
the  commencement  of  the  campaign,  was  to  force  the  southern 
frontiers  of  France !  Forty  thousand  had  perished,  forty  thousand 
were  scattered,  forty  thousand  were  about  to  fight,  in  order  to  escape 
the  Caudine  Forks ;  but  among  these  last  were  a  powerful  cavalry 
and  two  hundred  pieces  of  cannon. 

It  was  decided  that,  on  the  following  day,  the  whole  army 
should  debouch  by  the  bridges  of  the  Bormida,  for  there  were 
two,  covered  by  one  and  the  same  tete  du  pont,  notwithstanding 
the  false  intelligence  given  to  General  Bonaparte;  that  General 
Ott,  at  the  head  of  ten  thousand  men,  half  cavalry,  half  infantry, 
should  debouch  from  the  Bormida,  and,  turning  to  the  left,  proceed 
toward  a  village  called  Castel  Ceriolo-,  that  Generals  Haddick  and 
Kaim,  at  the  head  of  the  main  body  of  the  army,  about  twenty 
thousand  men,  should  carry  the  village  of  Marengo,  which  forms 
the  entrance  to  the  plain ;  and  that  General  Oreilly,  with  five  thou- 
sand or  six  thousand  soldiers,  should  turn  to  the  right  and  ascend 
the  Bormida.  A  powerful  artillery  was  to  support  this  movement. 
A  considerable  detachment,  particularly  strong  in  cavalry,  was 
left  in  the  rear  of  Alexandria,  on  the  Acqui  road,  to  observe 
Suchet's  troops,  of  whose  arrival  vague  accounts  had  been  received. 

We  have  described  that  vast  plain,  traversed  throughout  its 
whole  extent  by  the  highroad  from  Alexandria  to  Piacenza,  and 
inclosed  between  the  Scrivia  and  the  Bormida.  The  French, 
marching  from  Piacenza  and  the  Scrivia,  came  first  to  San  Giuli- 
ano,  then,  three-quarters  of  a  league  further,  to  Marengo,  which 
was  very  near  the  Bormida,  and  formed  the  principal  debouche 
that  the  Austrian  army  had  to  gain  possession  of,  in  order  to  get 
out  of  Alexandria.  Between  San  Giuliano  and  Marengo  ran,  in 
a  straight  fine,  the  road  that  was  about  to  be  disputed,  and  on 
either  side  extended  a  plain  covered  with  cornfields  and  vineyards. 
Below  Marengo,  and  on  the  right  of  the  French,  on  the  left  of  the 
Austrians,  was  Castel  Ceriolo,  a  large  hamlet,  through  which  Gen- 
eral Ott  would  have  to  pass,  in  order  to  turn  the  corps  of  General 
Victor  stationed  in  Marengo.  Upon  Marengo,  then,  the  principal 
attack  of  the  Austrians  was  to  he  directed,  since  that  village  com- 
manded the  entrance  to  the  plain. 


THE  BATTLE  OF  MARENGO  467 

At  daybreak,  the  Austrian  army  crossed  the  two  bridges  of  the 
Bormida.  But  its  movement  was  slow,  owing  to  its  having  but  a 
single  tete  du  pont  to  debouch  by.  Oreilly  passed  first,  and  fell 
in  with  Gardanne's  division,  which  General  Victor,  after  he  had 
occupied  Marengo,  had  sent  forward.  This  division  consisted  of 
only  the  101st  and  the  44th  demi-brigades.  Oreilly,  supported  by 
a  numerous  artillery,  and  having  twice  the  force,  obliged  it  to  fall 
back  and  to  seek  shelter  in  Marengo.  Fortunately  he  did  not  fol- 
low it  into  the  place,  but  waited  until  the  center,  under  General 
Haddick,  was  able  to  support  him.  The  tardiness  of  the  march 
through  the  defile  formed  by  the  bridges  caused  the  Austrians  to 
lose  two  or  three  hours.  At  length,  Generals  Haddick  and  Kaim 
deployed  in  the  rear  of  Oreilly,  and  General  Ott  crossed  the  same 
bridges,  to  proceed  to  Castel  Ceriolo.  General  Victor  instantly 
united  his  two  divisions  to  defend  Marengo,  and  sent  word  to  the 
First  Consul  that  the  whole  Austrian  army  was  advancing,  with 
the  evident  intention  of  giving  battle. 

A  defense  peculiar  to  the  ground  served  most  seasonably  to 
second  the  intrepidity  of  our  soldiers.  In  advance  of  Marengo, 
between  the  Austrians  and  the  French,  was  a  deep  and  muddy 
rivulet,  called  the  Fontanone.  It  ran  between  Marengo  and  the 
Bormida,  and  emptied  itself,  a  little  lower  down,  into  the  Bormida. 
Victor  placed  toward  his  right,  that  is,  in  the  village  of  Marengo, 
the  101st  and  44th  demi-brigades,  under  General  Gardanne;  to 
the  left  of  the  village,  the  24th,  the  43d,  and  the  96th,  under  Gen- 
eral Chambarlhac ;  a  little  further  back,  General  Kellei-mann,  with 
the  20th,  2d,  and  8th  cavalry,  and  a  squadron  of  the  12th.  The 
rest  of  the  12th  was  sent  to  the  Upper  Bormida,  to  observe  the 
distant  movements  of  the  enemy. 

General  Haddick  advanced  toward  the  rivulet,  protected  by 
twenty-five  pieces  of  artillery,  which  played  upon  the  French. 
He  threw  himself  bravely  into  the  bed  of  the  Fontanone,  at  the 
head  of  Bellegarde's  division.  General  Rivaud,  instantly  leaving 
the  shelter  of  the  village,  with  the  44th  and  the  101st,  opened  a 
pointblank  fire  upon  the  Austrians,  who  were  endeavoring  to  de- 
bouch. A  most  obstinate  conflict  ensued  along  the  Fontanone. 
Haddick  made  repeated  attempts ;  but  Rivaud,  keeping  his  ground 


468  GREAT   BATTLES    OF  ALL    NATIONS 

under  the  batteries  of  the  Austrians,  stopped  Haddick's  C5orps  by 
a  fire  of  musketry  within  short  range,  and  drove  it  back  in  disorder 
to  the  other  side  of  the  rivulet.  The  unfortunate  General  Haddick 
received  a  wound,  which  afterward  proved  mortal,  and  his  soldiers 
retired.  M.  de  Melas  then  ordered  General  Kaim's  troops  to  ad- 
vance, and  directed  Oreilly  to  ascend  the  bank  of  the  Bormida  to 
a  place  called  La  Stortighona,  with  the  design  of  charging  our  left 
with  Pilati's  cavalry.  But  at  this  moment  General  Kellermann 
was  on  horseback,  at  the  head  of  his  division  of  cavalry,  observing 
the  movements  of  the  enemy's  squadrons;  and  Lannes,  who  had 
lain,  the  preceding  night,  to  the  right  of  Victor,  in  the  plain,  had 
just  placed  himself  in  line  between  Marengo  and  Castel  Ceriolo. 
The  Austrians,  then,  made  a  second  effort.  Gardanne's  and 
Chambarlhac's  divisions,  drawn  up  in  a  semicircle,  around  the 
semicircular  bed  of  the  Fontanone,  were  placed  in  such  a  manner 
as  to  pour  a  converging  fire  upon  the  point  of  attack.  Their  mus- 
ketry spread  havoc  among  the  troops  of  General  Kaim,  Mean- 
while, General  Pilati,  ascending  higher,  had  succeeded  in  crossing 
the  Fontanone,  at  the  head  of  two  thousand  horse.  The  gallant 
Kellermann,  who  on  this  day  added  greatly  to  the  glory  he  had 
acquired  on  the  field  of  Valmy,  dashed  upon  Pilati's  squadrons  as 
soon  as  they  attempted  to  debouch,  slaughtering  and  hurling  them 
into  the  muddy  bed  of  that  little  stream,  which  art  could  not  have 
formed  better  for  covering  the  position  of  the  French. 

At  this  moment,  though  our  army,  taken  by  surprise,  had  no 
more  than  the  two  corps  of  Victor  and  Lannes  in  line,  that  is  to 
say,  fifteen  thousand  or  sixteen  thousand  men  to  resist  thirty-six 
thousand,  still,  owing  to  the  fault  committed  by  the  Austrians  on 
the  preceding  day,  in  neglecting  to  occupy  Marengo — a  fault,  how- 
ever, which  had  been  productive  of  advantages  to  them,  inasmuch 
as  it  had  led  General  Bonaparte  into  error — our  arni}^  had  time  to 
wait  the  arrival  of  its  commander,  and  of  the  reserves  remaining 
behind,  or  sent  by  the  route  of  ISTovi. 

Such  was  the  state  of  things,  when  M.  de  Melas  determined  to 
make  a  desperate  effort  to  save  the  honor  and  the  liberty  of  his 
army,  and,  gallantly  seconded  by  his  soldiers,  all  veterans,  whose 
victories  in  the  preceding  campaign  had  heightened  their  courage, 


THE    BATTLE    OF    MARENGO  469 

M.  de  Melas  made  another  attack  on  the  French  line.  General 
Ott,  who  had  taken  a  good  deal  of  time  in  filing  off,  began  to  be 
in  a  condition  to  act  on  the  left  of  the  Austrians.  He  maneuvered 
with  a  view  to  turn  us,  passed  through  Castel  Ceriolo,  and  fell 
upon  Lanncs,  who,  placed  beside  Victor,  between  Marengo  and 
Castel  Ceriolo,  formed  the  right  of  our  line.  While  General  Ott's 
corps  occupied  the  attention  of  Lannes,  the  corps  of  Oreilly,  Had- 
dick,  and  Kaim,  having  united,  were  directed  anew  upon  the  Fon- 
tanone,  in  front  of  Marengo.  A  formidable  artillery  supported  all 
their  movements.  Lattermann's  grenadiers  entered  the  brook, 
crossed  it,  and  gained  the  other  bank.  Chambarlhac's  division, 
posted  on  the  left  of  Marengo,  and  on  the  flanks  of  the  Austrian 
grenadiers,  kept  up  a  destructive  fire  upon  them.  A  battalion  of 
these  grenadiers,  nevertheless,  contrived  to  maintain  its  ground 
beyond  the  Fontanone.  M.  de  Melas  redoubled  the  cannonade  on 
Chambarlhac's  division,  which  was  not  covered  by  the  houses  of 
the  village,  like  that  which  defended  Marengo  itself.  MeanMdiile 
the  Austrian  pioneers  hastily  constructed  a  bridge  on  trestles. 
The  gallant  Rivaud,  at  the  head  of  the  44th,  issuing  from  the  vil- 
lage of  Marengo,  and  marching  up  to  the  assailants,  in  spite  of  the 
grape-shot,  was  on  the  point  of  driving  them  into  the  Fontanone, 
when  tremendous  discharges  of  artillery  stopped  the  44th,  exhausted 
by  this  obstinate  struggle,  and  Rivaud  himself  was  wounded. 
Availing  themselves  of  this  advantage,  Lattermann's  grenadiers 
advanced  en  viasse,  and  penetrated  into  Marengo.  Rivaud,  cov- 
ered with  blood,  j^laced  himself  once  more  at  the  head  of  the  44th, 
made  a  vigorous  charge  on  these  grenadiers,  and  drove  them  out 
of  Marengo;  but  received,  as  soon  as  he  lost  the  shelter  of  the 
houses,  by  a  fearful  fire  of  artillery,  he  could  not  force  them  to 
recross  the  brook,  which  had  hitherto  so  well  protected  our  army. 
Weakened  by  loss  of  blood,  and  scarcely  able  to  support  himself, 
this  brave  officer  was  obliged  to  submit  to  be  carried  off  the  field 
of  battle.  The  Austrian  grenadiers  therefore  retained  possession 
of  the  position  which  they  had  just  carried.  At  the  same  instant, 
Chambarlhac's  division,  which,  as  we  have  said,  was  not  protected 
by  any  shelter,  but  completely''  exposed  to  the  grape-shot,  was  well- 
nigh  mowed  down.      General   Oreilly   repulsed   the   96th,   which 


470  GREAT    BATTLES    OF    ALL    NATIONS 

formed  our  extreme  left,  and  then  began  to  act  on  the  offensive. 
Toward  the  right,  Lannes,  who,  having  at  first  the  single  corps 
of  General  Kaim  only  to  deal  with,  had  been  on  the  point  of  driv- 
ing it  into  the  bed  of  the  Fontanone,  perceived  that  he  was  all  at 
once  turned  by  General  Ott,  debouching  from  Castel  Ceriolo  with 
a  large  body  of  cavalry.  Champeaux's  brigade  of  cavalry,  drawn 
up  in  rear  of  Lannes'  corps,  as  was  Kellermann  in  rear  of  Victor's, 
made,  but  in  vain,  several  brilliant  charges.  The  unfortunate 
Champeaux  received  a  mortal  wound.  Our  army,  severely  pressed 
on  both  wings,  separated  from  Marengo,  the  point  to  which  it  had 
at  first  so  strongly  clung,  and  having  no  longer  any  support,  ran 
the  risk  of  being  forced  back  into  the  plain  in  the  rear,  where  it 
could  make  no  stand  against  two  hundred  pieces  of  cannon  and 
an  immense  cavalry. 

It  was  ten  o'clock  in  the  morning.  The  carnage  had  been 
frightful.  A  considerable  mass  of  wounded  encumbered  the  road 
between  Marengo  and  San  Giuliano.  Already  part  of  Victor's 
troops,  overwhelmed  by  numbers,  were  retiring  in  disorder,  cry- 
ing that  all  was  lost.  All  must  have  been  lost,  in  fact,  without 
a  re-enforcement  of  troops  which  were  not  exhausted,  and,  more 
especially,  without  a  great  captain,  capable  of  regaining  the  victory 
wrested  from  us. 

General  Bonaparte,  on  receiving  intelligence  that  the  Austrian 
army,  which  he  so  feared  might  escape  him,  had,  on  the  contrary, 
taken  his  army  by  surprise,  in  that  very  plain  of  Marengo  so  de- 
serted on  the  preceding  day,  hastened  from  Torre  di  Garofalo, 
congratulating  himself  on  the  lucky  inundation  of  the  Scrivia, 
which  had  prevented  him  from  passing  the  night  at  Voghera.  He 
brought  with  him  the  consular  guard,  a  body  not  very  numerous 
but  of  incomparable  valor,  and  which  became  subsequently  the 
imperial  guard ;  he  brought  Monnier's  division,  composed  of  three 
excellent  demi-brigades ;  he  was  followed  at  a  little  distance  by  a 
reserve  of  two  regiments  of  cavalry ;  and  he  further  sent  orders  to 
Desaix  to  march  with  the  utmost  expedition  for  San  Giuliano. 

The  First  Consul,  at  the  head  of  these  reserves,  proceeded  at 
a  gallop  to  the  field  of  battle.  He  found  Lannes  attacked  on  the 
right  by  the  infantry  and  cavalry  of  General  Ott,  but  endeavoring, 


THE    BATTLE    OF    MARENGO 


471 


nevertheless,  to  support  himself  on  the  left  around  Marengo.  Gar- 
danne  was  defending  himself  in  the  hedges  of  that  village,  the 
object  of  such  a  furious  struggle ;   and,  on  the  other  side,  Cham- 


DESAIX 


barlhac's  division  was  dispersing  under  the  heavy  discharges  of 
the  Austrian  artillery.  A  glance  sufficed  for  his  military  eye  to 
perceive  what  was  fitting  to  be  done  in  order  to  retrieve  the  day. 
His  mutilated  left  was  absolutely  routed;  but  his  right,  which  was 


472  GREAT    BATTLES    OF    ALL   NATIONS 

only  threatened,  still  maintained  its  ground ;  it  was  that,  therefore, 
which  ought  to  be  re-enforced.  By  keeping  a  firm  hold  of  Castel 
Ceriolo  he  should  have  a  point  of  support  amid  that  extensive  plain ; 
he  should  be  able  to  make  a  pivot  of  his  strengthened  wing,  and 
bring  his  beaten  wing  into  the  rear,  where  it  would  be  out  of  the 
reach  of  the  enemy.  If  he  should  lose  by  this  movement  the  high- 
road from  Marengo  to  San  Giuliano,  the  evil  would  be  reparable ; 
for,  behind  his  new  position,  there  would  be  another  road,  leading 
to  Sale,  and  from  Sale  to  the  banks  of  the  Po.  His  line  of  retreat 
to  Pavia  would  thus  be  still  secured.  Placed,  moreover,  on  the 
right  of  the  plain,  he  would  be  on  the  flank  of  the  Austrians,  who 
would  take  the  highroad  from  Marengo  to  San  Giuliano,  if  they 
meant  to  follow  up  the  victory. 

Having  made  these  reflections  with  the  rapidity  of  lightning, 
General  Bonaparte  put  instantly  into  execution  the  resolution  which 
he  had  just  conceived.  He  sent  forward  into  the  plain,  to  the 
right  of  Lannes,  the  eight  hundred  grenadiers  of  the  consular 
guard,  ordering  them  to  stop  the  Austrian  cavalry  till  the  arrival 
of  Monnier's  three  demi-brigades.  These  brave  fellows,  formed 
in  square,  received  with  admirable  coolness  the  charges  of  the 
Lobkowitz  dragoons,  and  stood  unbroken  by  the  repeated  assaults 
of  a  multitude  of  horse.  A  little  on  their  right.  General  Bonaparte 
ordered  two  of  Monnier's  demi-brigades,  which  arrived  at  the  mo- 
ment, to  proceed  toward  Castel  Ceriolo.  These  two  demi-brigades, 
headed  by  General  Carra  St.  Cyr,  marched  forward,  and,  some- 
times drawn  up  in  square  to  stop  the  cavalry,  sometimes  in  col- 
umns of  attack  to  charge  the  infantry,  they  at  length  recovered 
the  lost  ground,  and  lodged  themselves  in  the  hedges  and  gardens 
of  Castel  Ceriolo.  At  the  same  moment,  General  Bonaparte,  at 
the  head  of  the  7  2d,  lent  his  support  to  the  left  under  Lannes, 
while  Dupont,  the  chief  of  the  staff,  went  to  rally  in  the  rear  the 
wrecks  of  Victor's  corps,  pursued  by  Oreilly's  horse,  but  protected 
by  Murat  with  the  reserve  of  cavalry.  The  presence  of  the  First 
Consul,  the  sight  of  the  bearskin  caps  of  his  horse-guard,  infused 
fresh  spirit  into  the  troops.  The  battle  recommenced  with  new 
fury.  The  brave  Watrin,  of  Lannes'  corps,  with  the  Bth  of  the 
line  and  the  22d,  drove  Kaim's  soldiers  into  the  Fontanone  at  the 


THE  BATTLE  OF  MARENGO  473 

point  of  the  bayonet.  Lannes,  firing  the  40th  and  the  28th  with 
his  own  heroic  spirit,  pushed  both  of  theni  upon  the  Austrians. 
The  battle  raged  fiercely  over  the  whole  of  the  immense  plain. 
Gardanne  strove  to  reconquer  Marengo;  Lannes  endeavored  to 
make  himself  master  of  the  rivulet  which,  at  first,  had  so  usefull}- 
covered  our  troops ;  the  grenadiers  of  the  consular  guard,  still  in 
square,  like  a  living  citadel  amid  that  field  of  battle,  filled  the  gap 
between  Lannes  and  the  columns  of  Carra  St.  Cyr,  which  had  en- 
tered the  first  houses  of  Castel  Ceriolo.  But  Baron  de  Melas,  with 
the  courage  of  despair,  bringing  up  his  united  masses  upon  Ma- 
rengo, debouched  at  last  from  the  village,  and  drove  back  the 
exhausted  soldiers  of  Gardanne,  who,  in  vain,  took  advantage  of 
all  obstacles.  Oreilly  continued  to  overwhelm  with  grape-shot  the 
division  of  Chambarlhac,  which  was  still  left  exposed  to  the  fire 
of  an  immense  artillery. 

It  was  impossible  for  the  French  to  keep  their  ground ;  they 
were  obliged  to  give  way.  General  Bonaparte  ordered  them  to 
fall  back  by  degrees,  at  the  same  time  keeping  up  a  firm  counte- 
nance. But,  while  his  left,  deprived  of  Marengo,  and  thencefor- 
ward without  support,  retreated  rapidly  to  San  Giuliano,  where  it 
might  find  shelter,  he  continued  to  hold  the  right  of  the  plain,  and 
drew  away  from  it  slowly,  thanks  to  the  point  of  Castel  Ceriolo, 
thanks  to  the  energy  of  the  consular  guard,  and  thanks  above  all 
to  Lannes,  who  made  unparalleled  efforts.  Provided  only  he  holds 
his  position  on  the  right,  the  First  Consul  still  retains  a  line  of 
retreat  by  Sale  toward  the  banks  of  the  Po ;  and  if  Desaix,  sent 
the  preceding  day  upon  Novi,  should  come  up  in  time,  he  may  still 
reconquer  the  field  of  battle  and  bring  back  victory  to  his  side. 

It  was  at  this  moment  that  Lannes  and  his  four  demi-brigades 
made  efforts  worthy  of  the  admiration  of  posterity.  The  enemy, 
who  had  debouched  en  masse  from  Marengo  into  the  plain,  poured 
forth  a  shower  of  balls  and  grape-shot  from  eighty  pieces  of  cannon. 
Lannes,  at  the  head  of  his  four  demi-brigades,  was  two  hours  in 
retiring  three-quarters  of  a  league.  When  the  enemy  approached 
and  became  too  pressing,  he  halted  and  charged  with  the  bayonet. 
Though  his  artiller}-  was  dismounted,  a  few  light  pieces,  drawn 
by  the  best  horses,  and  maneuvered  with  equal  skill  and  boldness, 


474  GREAT   BATTLES    OF  ALL    NATIONS 

were  brought  up,  and  assisted  by  their  fire  the  demi-brigades  that 
were  too  much  cramped,  and  dared  to  place  themselves  in  battery 
against  the  formidable  Austrian  artillery.  The  consular  guard, 
which  could  not  be  broken  by  charges  of  cavalry,  was  now  at- 
tacked with  cannon.  The  enemy  strove  to  batter  it  in  breach,  like 
a  wall,  and  then  charged  it  with  Frimont's  horse.  It  sustained 
considerable  loss,  and  fell  back,  but  unbroken.  Carra  St.  Cyr 
fell  back  also,  and  abandoned  Castel  Ceriolo,  still  retaining,  how- 
ever, a  last  support  in  the  vineyards  in  rear  of  that  village.  We, 
nevertheless,  remained  masters  of  the  road  from  Castel  Ceriolo 
to  Sale.  On  all  sides,  the  plain  exhibited  a  vast  scene  of 
carnage,  where  the  roar  of  explosions  mingled  with  that  of  the 
artillery;  for  Lannes  blew  up  the  ammunition-wagons  which  he 
could  not  carry  off. 

Half  the  day  was  spent.  M.  de  Melas  fancied  himself  sure  of 
the  victory,  which  he  had  so  dearly  purchased.  This  old  warrior, 
who,  for  courage  at  least,  proved  himself  worthy  of  his  adversary 
on  that  memorable  day,  returned  to  Alexandria,  worn  out  with 
fatigue.  He  left  the  command  to  M.  de  Zach,  the  chief  of  his 
staff,  and  sent  off  couriers  to  all  Europe,  to  proclaim  his  victory 
and  the  defeat  of  General  Bonaparte  at  Marengo.  This  chief  of 
the  staff,  invested  with  the  command,  then  formed  the  bulk  of  the 
Austrian  army  into  marching  column,  on  the  highroad  from  Ma- 
rengo to  San  Giuliano.  He  put  at  the  head  two  regiments  of 
infantry,  and  then  the  column  of  Lattermann's  grenadiers,  fol- 
lowed by  the  baggage  train.  He  placed  General  Oreilly  on  the 
left,  and  Generals  Kaim  and  Haddick  on  the  right,  and  endeav- 
ored to  gain  in  this  order  that  highroad  to  Piacenza,  the  object  of 
so  many  efforts  and  the  salvation  of  the  Austrian  army. 

It  was  now  three  o'clock.  If  no  new  circumstance  intervened, 
the  battle  might  be  considered  as  lost  by  the  French,  unless  they 
could,  on  the  morrow,  with  the  troops  shifted  from  the  Tessino 
and  the  Adda  to  the  Po,  retrieve  the  misfortune  of  the  day.  De- 
saix,  however,  with  Boudet's  whole  division,  had  not  yet  come 
up :  would  he  arrive  in  time?  On  this  circumstance  depended  the 
issue  of  the  battle.  The  aides-de-camp  of  the  First  Consul  had 
been  galloping  in  quest  of   him  ever  since  morning.     But,   long 


THE    BATTLE    OF    MARENGO  475 

before  thej^  reached  him,  Desaix,  on  the  first  cannon-shot  fired  in 
the  plain  of  Marengo,  had  instantly  wheeled  about.  Hearing  this 
distant  report,  he  had  concluded  that  the  enemy,  whom  he  had  been 
sent  in  search  of  to  Novi,  on  the  Genoa  road,  was  at  Marengo  itself. 
He  had  immediately  dispatched  Savary,  with  a  few  hundred  horse, 
to  Novi,  to  see  what  was  going  forward,  and  had  waited  with  his 
division,  Hstening  intently  to  the  cannon  of  the  Austrians  and  the 
French,  which  never  ceased  thundering  in  the  direction  of  the 
Bormida.  From  Savary  having  discovered  no  trace  of  tlie  enemy 
in  the  environs  of  Novi,  Desaix  was  confirmed  in  his  hapi^y  con- 
jecture, and,  without  further  delay,  marched  for  Marengo,  sending 
before  him  several  aides-de-camp  to  apprise  the  First  Consul  that 
he  was  coming.  He  had  marched  the  whole  day,  and,  at  three 
o'clock,  his  heads  of  columns  at  length  appeared  at  the  entrance 
into  the  plain,  in  the  vicinity  of  San  Giuliano.  He  himself,  pre- 
ceding them  at  a  gallop,  rode  up  to  the  First  Consul.  Happy 
inspiration  of  a  lieutenant  equally  intelligent  and  attached!  happy 
fortune  of  youth !  If,  fifteen  years  later,  the  First  Consul,  now  so 
well  seconded  by  his  generals,  had  found  a  Desaix  on  the  field  of 
Waterloo,  he  would  have  preserved  the  empire,  and  France  her 
preponderant  position  among  the  powers  of  Europe. 

The  presence  of  Desaix  changed  the  aspect  of  things.  He  was 
surrounded;  he  was  made  acquainted  with  the  occurrences  of  the 
day.  The  generals  formed  a  circle  about  him  and  the  Fii-st  Con- 
sul, and  discussed  with  warmth  the  critica,l  position  of  llio  army. 
Most  of  them  advised  retreat.  The  First  Consul  was  not  of  this 
opinion,  and  he  earnestly  pressed  Desaix  for  his.  Desaix,  survey- 
ing the  devastated  field  of  battle,  then  drawing  out  his  watch  and 
looking  at  the  hour,  replied  to  General  Bonaparte  in  these  simple 
and  noble  terms:  *'Yes,  the  battle  is  lost;  but  it  is  only  three 
o'clock;  there  is  time  enough  to  gain  another."  General  Bona- 
parte, delighted  witli  the  opinion  of  Desaix,  prepared  to  avail  him- 
self of  the  succor  brought  him  by  that  general,  and  of  the  advan- 
tages insured  to  him  by  the  position  taken  ever  since  morning.  He 
was,  in  fact,  in  the  plain,  on  the  right,  while  the  enemy  was  on 
the  left,  in  marching  column,  on  the  highroad,  advancing  toward 
San  Giuliano.     Desaix,  arriving  from  San  Giuliano,  with  six  thou- 


476  GREAT   BATTLES    OF    ALL    NATIONS 

sand  fresh  troops,  and  facing  the  Austrians,  might  stop  them  short, 
while  the  bulk  of  the  rallied  army  should  fall  upon  their  flank. 
Orders  were  forthwith  issued  in  accordance  with  this  plan. 

The  three  demi-brigades  of  Desaix  were  formed  in  advance  of 
San  Giuliano,  a  little  to  the  right  of  the  highroad ;  the  30th  de- 
ployed in  line;  the  9th  and  59th  in  close  columns  on  the  wings  of 
the  former.  A  slight  undulation  of  the  ground  concealed  them 
from  the  enemy.  On  their  left  were  the  rallied  and  somewhat 
recovered  wrecks  of  Chambarlhac's  and  Gardanne's  troops  under 
General  Victor;  on  their  right,  in  the  plain,  Lannes,  whose  retreat- 
ing movement  was  suspended,  then  the  consular  guard,  then  Carra 
St.  Cyr,  who  had  kept  as  near  as  possible  to  Castel  Ceriolo.  The 
army  then  formed  a  long  oblique  line  from  San  Giuliano  to  Castel 
Ceriolo,  and  between  Desaix  and  Lannes,  and  a  little  in  rear,  was 
placed  Kellermann's  cavalry  in  the  interval.  A  battery  of  twelve 
pieces,  the  sole  remnant  of  the  whole  artillerj^  of  the  army,  was 
spread  upon  the  front  of  the  corps  of  Desaix. 

These  dispositions  made,  the  First  Consul  rode  through  the 
ranks  of  his  soldiers,  and  addressed  the  different  corps.  "My 
friends,"  said  he,  "we  have  fallen  back  far  enough:  recollect 
that  I  am  accustomed  to  lie  on  the  field  of  battle."  Having  re- 
animated the  troops,  who,  inspirited  by  the  arrival  of  the  reserves, 
burned  with  impatience  to  resume  the  fight,  he  gave  the  signal  for 
attack.     A  charge  was  beaten  along  the  whole  line. 

The  Austrians,  in  order  of  march  rather  than  in  order  of  battle, 
were  proceeding  along  the  highroad.  The  column  under  the  com- 
mand of  M.  de  Zach  came  first.  A  little  in  rear  came  the  center, 
half  deployed  in  the  plain,  and  making  front  to  Lannes. 

General  Marmont  all  at  once  unmasked  twelve  pieces  of  cannon. 
A  thick  shower  of  grape-shot  fell  upon  the  head  of  the  surprised 
Austrian  column,  which  expected  no  further  resistance;  for  the 
enemy  believed  that  the  French  were  decidedly  retreating.  Scarcely 
had  it  recovered  from  this  sudden  shock  when  Desaix  set  the  9th 
light  in  motion.  "Go  and  inform  the  First  Consul,"  said  he  to 
Savary,  his  aid-de-camp,  "that  I  am  charging,  and  that  I  am  in 
want  of  cavalry  to  support  me."  Desaix,  on  horseback,  led  on 
this  demi-brigade.      He   ascended  with  it  the   slight  rise  of  the 


THH  BATTLE  OF  MARENGO  477 

ground  which  hid  it  from  the  view  of  the  Austrians,  and  abruptly 
revealed  himself  to  them  by  a  fire  of  musketry  discharged  within 
a  few  paces  of  them.     The  Austrians  returned  it,  and  Desaix  fell, 
pierced  by  a  ball  in  the  chest.     "Conceal  my  death,"  said  he  to 
General  Boudet,  his  chief  of  division;    "it  might  dishearten  the 
troops."     Useless  precaution  of  that  hero!     His  fall  had  been  ob- 
served, and  his  soldiers,  like  those  of  Turenne,  insisted,  with  loud 
shouts,  on  avenging  their  leader.     The  9th  light,  which  on  that 
day  earned  the  title  of  Incomparable,  which  it  bore  till  the  termina- 
tion of  our  wars— the  9th  light,  having  poured  forth  its  fire,  formed 
in  column,  and  fell  upon  the  dense  mass  of  the  Austrians.     At 
sight  of  it,  the  first  two  regiinents  which  opened  the  march,  taken 
by  surprise,  fell  back  in  disorder  on  the  second  line,  and  disappeared 
in  its  ranks.     The  column  of  Lattermann's  grenadiers  was  then 
alone  at  the  head,  and  received  this  shock  like  crack  troops.     It 
stood  firm.     The  conflict  extended  on  both  sides  of  the  highroad. 
The  9th  light  was  supported  on  the  right  by  Victor's  ralhed  troops, 
on  the  left  by  the  30th  and  59th  demi-brigades  of  Boudet's  divis- 
ion, which  had  followed  the  movement.     Lattermann's  grenadiers 
were   defending   themselves  with  difficulty,   when   an   unforeseen 
storm  suddenly  burst  over  their  heads.     General  Kellermann,  who, 
on  the  application  of  Desaix,  had  received  orders  to  charge,  set  off 
at  a  gallop,  and,  passing  between  Lannes  and  Desaix,  placed  part 
of  his  squadrons  en  potence,  to  make  head  against  the  Austrian 
cavalry,  which  he  saw  before  him;    then,   with  the  rest,  he  fell 
upon  the  flank  of  the  column  of  the  grenadiers,  already  attacked 
in  front  by  Boudet's  infantry.     This  charge,  executed  with  extraor- 
dinary vigor,    cut   the    column   in   two.       Kellermann' s   dragoons 
slaughtered  to  the  right  and  to  the  left,  till,  pressed  on  all  sides, 
the  unfortunate  grenadiers  laid  down  their  arms.     Two  thousand 
of  them  surrendered.     At  their  head,  General  Zach  himself  was 
obliged  to  deliver  his  sword.     The  Austrians  were  thus  deprived 
of  their  commander  during  the  conclusion  of  the  battle ;  for  M.  de 
Melas,  as  we  have  seen,  thinking  himself  sure  of  the  victory,  had 
retired  to  Alexandria.     Kellermann  did  not  stop  there;   dashing 
upon  the  Lichtenstein  dragoons,  he  put  them  to  flight.     The  latter 
fell  back  upon  the  center  of  the  Austrians,  which  was  deploying 


47^  GREAT   BATTLES    OF    ALL    NATIONS 

in  the  plain,  in  face  of  Lannes,  and  threw  it  into  some  disorder. 
Lannes  then  advanced,  and  attacked  the  shaken  center  of  the 
Austrians  "vvith  vigor ;  while  the  grenadiers  of  the  consular  gnard 
and  Carra  St.  Cyr  again  moved  toward  Castel  Ceriolo,  from  which 
they  were  not  far  distant.  Along  the  whole  line  from  San  Giuli- 
ano  to  Castel  Ceriolo  the  French  had  resumed  the  offensive ;  they 
marched  forward,  intoxicated  with  joy  and  enthusiasm,  on  perceiv- 
ing victory  returning  to  them.  Surprise  and  discouragement  had 
passed  to  the  side  of  the  Austrians. 

Admirable  determination  of  character  which  persists,  and,  hy 
persisting,  brings  back  Fortune!  From  San  Giuliano  to  Castel 
Ceriolo  that  oblique  line  of  the  French  advanced  at  the  charge- 
step,  driving  back  the  Austrians,  utterly  astonished  at  having  a 
new  battle  to  fight.  Carra  St.  Cyr  had  soon  retaken  the  village 
of  Castel  Ceriolo,  and  General  Ott,  who  had  at  first  advanced  be- 
yond that  village,  fearful  of  being  overpowered,  thought  of  falling 
back,  lest  he  should  have  his  communication  cut  off.  A  panic  was 
commimicated  to  the  cavalry;  it  fled  at  full  speed,  shouting,  "To 
the  bridges!"  All  then  strove  who  should  first  reach  those  bridges 
of  the  Bormida.  General  Ott,  recrossing  at  Castel  Ceriolo  with 
Vogelsang's  troops,  was  obliged  to  force  his  way  through  the 
French.  He  succeeded,  and  regained  in  haste  the  banks  of  the 
Bormida,  to  which  all  hurried  with  furious  precipitation. 

Generals  Kaim  and  Haddick  strove  in  vain  to  keep  their  ground 
in  the  center;  Lannes  did  not  allow  them  the  means  of  doing  so; 
he  drove  them  into  Marengo,  and  prepared  to  push  them  into  the 
Fontanone,  and,  from  the  Fontanone,  into  the  Bormida.  But 
Weidenfeld's  grenadiers  made  head  for  a  moment,  to  give  Oreilly, 
who  had  advanced  as  far  as  Cassina  Grossa,  time  to  come  back. 
The  Austrian  cavalry,  on  its  part,  attempted  several  charges  to 
stop  the  progress  of  the  French.  But  it  was  repelled  by  the  horse 
grenadiers  of  the  consular  guard,  led  by  Bessieres  and  young  Beau- 
harnais.  Lannes  and  Victor,  with  their  united  corps,  at  last  fell 
upon  Marengo,  and  threw  Oreilly's  as  well  as  "Weidenfeld's  grena- 
diers into  disorder.  The  confusion  on  the  bridges  of  the  Bormida 
increased  every  moment.  Foot,  horse,  artillery,  were  crowded 
together  there  in  disorder.     The  bridges  being  insuflBcient  for  all, 


THE   BATTLE    OF    MARENGO  479 

many  threw  themselves  into  the  Bormida,  for  the  purpose  of  ford- 
ing it.     An  artillery-driver  attempted  to  ci'oss  with  his  gun.     He 
succeeded,  and  the  whole  of  the  artillery  would  then  have  followed 
his  example,  but  part  of  the  carriages  stuck  fast  in  the  bed  of  the 
river.     The  French,  hotly  pursuing  them,  took  men,  horses,  cannon 
and  baggage.     The  unfortunate  Baron  de  Melas,  who,  two  hours 
before,  had  left  his  army  victorious,  had  hastened  to  the  spot  on 
hearing  of  this  disaster,  and  could  not  believe  his  eyes.     He  was 
a  prey  to  vexation  and  despair.     Such  was  the  sanguinary  battle 
of  Marengo,  which,  as  we  shall  presently  see,  had  an  immense  in- 
fluence on  the  destinies  of  France  and  of  the  world ;   it  gave,  in 
fact,  at  the  moment,  peace  to  the  Repubhc,  and,  a  little  later,  the 
Empire  to  the  First  Consul,     It  was  cruelly  disputed,  and  it  was 
worth  the  disputing;  for  never  was  the  issue  of  a  battle  more  seri-" 
ous  for  both  adversaries.     M.  de  Melas  fought  to  avoid  a  humiliat- 
ing capitulation ;   General  Bonaparte  staked  on  that  day  his  whole 
fortune.     The  losses,  considering  the  number  of  the  combatants, 
were  immense,  and  out  of  all  the  usual  proportions.     The  Austrians 
lost  about  eight  thousand  men  in  killed  and  wounded,  and  more 
than  four  thousand  prisoners.     Their  staff  was  cruelly  decimated. 
General  Haddick  was  killed;    Generals  Vogelsang,   Lattermann, 
BeUegarde,  Lamarsaille,  and  Gottesheim  were  wounded ;  and  with 
them  a  great  number  of  ofl&cers.     Thus  they  lost,  in  men  liors  de 
combat  or  taken,  one-third  of  their  army,  if  it  was  from  thirty-six 
thousand  to  forty  thousand  strong,  as  it  is  generally  said  to  have 
been.     As  for  the  French,  they  had  six  thousand  killed  or  wounded, 
and   about   one  thousand   of  them   were   taken   prisoners,   which 
again  exhibits  a  loss  of  one-fourth  out  of  twenty-eight  thousand 
soldiers  present  at  the  battle.     Their  staff  suffered  as  severely  as 
the  Austrian  staff.     Generals  Mainony,  Rivaud,   Malher,  Cham- 
peaux,  were  wounded,   the  last  mortally.     The  greatest  loss  was 
that  of  Desaix.     France  had  not  sustained  one  more  to  be  regretted 
during  a  ten  years'  warfare.     In  the  estimation  of  the  First  Con- 
sul, this  loss  was  great  enough  to  diminish  the  joy  that  he  felt  for 
the  victory.     His  secretary,  M,  de  Bourrienne,  hastening  to  con- 
gratulate him  on  this  miraculous  triumph,  said  to  him,  "What  a 
glorious  day!"     "Yes,"  rephed  the  First  Consul,  "it  would  have 


480  GREAT    BATTLES    OF   ALL   NATIONS 

been  glorious  indeed,  could  I  but  have  embraced  Desaix  this  even- 
ing on  the  field  of  battle.  I  was  going,"  added  he,  "to  make  him 
minister  of  war;  I  would  have  made  him  a  prince,  if  I  could." 
The  conqueror  of  Marengo  had  as  j'^et  no  notion  that  he  should,  at 
ixO  distant  day,  have  it  in  his  power  to  bestow  crowns  on  those  who 
served  him.  The  body  of  the  unfortunate  Desaix  was  lying  near 
San  Giuliano,  amid  that  vast  field  of  carnage.  His  aid-de-camp, 
Savary,  who  had  been  long  attached  to  him,  sought  out  his  body 
from  among  the  dead,  and,  recognizing  it  by  his  profusion  of  hair, 
had  it  removed,  and  wrapped  in  a  hussar  cloak ;  then  placing  it  on 
his  horse,  he  conveyed  it  to  the  headquarters  at  Torre  di  Garofalo. 
Though  the  plain  of  Marengo  was  drenched  with  French  blood, 
joy  pervaded  the  army.  Soldiers  and  generals  felt  the  merit  of 
their  conduct,  and  appreciated  the  immense  importance  of  a  victory 
gained  on  the  rear  of  the  enemy.  The  Austrians,  on  the  contrary, 
were  in  consternation;  they  knew  that  they  were  enveloped,  and 
had  no  alternative  but  to  submit  to  the  law  of  the  conqueror. 


A  truce  was  then  arranged ;  but  the  war,  resumed  in  the  autumn, 
resulted  in  the  crushing  of  their  army  on  the  Iser,  and  the  victory 
of  Hohenlinden. 


END    OF    VOLUME    ONE 


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